NFT marketplace Blur makes an impressive start- Will it overthrow OpenSea?

• Blur outpaced OpenSea in NFT sales volume in December 2022.
• The fanbase awaits the launch of the marketplace’s native token BLUR.

The NFT ecosystem showed signs of a rebound in the latter part of 2022 and a new kid on the block has powered this recovery. In the battle of NFT marketplaces, Blur is challenging OpenSea.

As per data provided by Delphi Digital, NFT sales volume on Blur hit $484 million in December 2022, which was almost double the volume on OpenSea. the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs. 

NFT volumes rebounded last month as @blur_io led NFT marketplace transaction volume in December. pic.twitter.com/X2gJPP4uZe

— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) January 21, 2023

Blur takes NFT world by storm

Blur marketplace has already become a hot commodity in the NFT landscape in a relatively shorter period of time. Since its launch on 19 October 2022, the marketplace has seen a massive increase in its unique active wallets (UAW), having more than tripled at press time, data from DappRadar indicated. 

Source: DappRadar

The number of unique traders transacting in the marketplace jumped by almost 16% to 4.353 in the last 24 hours as compared to a drop of about 6% recorded by OpenSea in the same time period. A report by DappRadar attributed Blur’s increasing adoption to its fast transaction speeds and user-friendly interface.

Blur sees higher value addition

The total value locked (TVL) for Blur bidding pools touched an all-time high (ATH) of $35.52 million, per DefiLlama, adding more evidence to the popularity of the marketplace. 

Source: DefiLlama

It must be noted that historically, OpenSea has dominated and occupied a lion’s share in total NFT sales across all platforms. However, what could cheer supporters of Blur was the difference in value addition by each sale between the two competing platforms.

According to Dune Analytics, the average sale size of Blur stood at 1.088 ETH at press time, as compared to 0.347 ETH for OpenSea. Furthermore, the average number of trades per user stood at 3.6 for Blur while it was less than three for OpenSea. This implied that the level of interaction by an average user was higher on Blur.

Source: Dune Analytics

The Blur community now eagerly awaits the launch of the native token BLUR, which is slated to release on 14 February. The marketplace has frequently airdropped BLUR tokens in the last three months.

In fact, NFT market observers have attributed the increase in sales volume to these airdrops, which incentivized trading activity on the platform.