OpenSea Challenger Launches Its Long-Awaited Native BLUR Token

Blur, an NFT marketplace that launched in October and quickly rose to prominence, announced this Tuesday the launch of its long-awaited native token. The Blur token has been eagerly awaited by the marketplace’s community since its inception and was initially set for launch in January.

Blur Launches its Native Token

On Tuesday, February 14th, the NFT marketplace Blur announced the launch of its native token—BLUR. The token has been long-awaited by the community and has been initially set for launch in January before being postponed with the company stating that it is “trying new things and the extra two weeks will allow us to deliver a launch that hasn’t been done before.”

The launch comes after three rounds of “care packages”—airdrops issued as rewards for trading on the marketplace that can be opened to receive BLUR tokens now that they have been released. The NFT marketplace stated that “care package” holders, creators and traders that have been active within the previous three months have 60 days following February 14th to claim their tokens.

BLUR is intended to enable traders to benefit from the marketplace’s success through community ownership and participate in the platform’s governance protocol. Alongside the announcement, Blur warned that users should be careful and only follow URLs posted by the official account due to the increased likelihood of scams.

The NFT Marketplace Targeting “Professional” Traders

While a relative newcomer to the industry, Blur has managed to achieve some impressive results since its inception in October 2022—despite the beating the sector took throughout the “crypto winter”. The Ethereum-based marketplace launched with the offer of zero fees and “care package” airdrops that have now become redeemable for BLUR to regular traders.

The NFT marketplace positioned itself as the platform for “professional” traders and is offering a set of features including a portfolio analytics tool and “floor sweeping” across multiple platforms. By late December, Blur accounted for most of the $78 million trading volume seen by NFT marketplace aggregators that month.

Blur’s success at a time when the crypto markets were seeing troubling lows perhaps represents another signal that the sector can make a resurgence. Despite the “crypto winter”, several legacy companies have decided to try their hand at offering NFTs—with some like Nike seeing success in their endeavor—and there has been a renewed push to cement non-fungible tokens’ place in art history with multiple donations to major museums across the world.

Do you think Blur will manage to dethrone OpenSea as the number 1 NFT marketplace? Let us know in the comments below.