$BLUR is lastly right here. After delaying the launch of the platform’s native token in January, the NFT market formally started letting customers redeem care packages for the token at 1:30 p.m. ET on February 14, 2023. The run-up to the launch has been marked by a lot anticipation, with in style change Coinbase tweeting that it will checklist the token if liquidity circumstances are met and Blur’s trading volume surging within the final month, cementing its spot as one of many high ten NFT marketplaces in existence.
How did Blur handle to do all of this in such a short while? And the way is its token launch going? Right here, we break down every thing that you must know in regards to the market’s latest rise to NFT stardom and why the launch of its native token is such a defining occasion for the platform, its customers, and Web3.
Blur’s Web3 attraction
Blur’s rise has been simple. Based by Web3 dev Pacman and launched in October 2022, the low-fee, royalties-optional market has seen over $430 million in trading volume within the final 30 days. That quantity is particularly spectacular provided that Blur’s collective buying and selling quantity amounted to over $301 million between its launch in October 2022 to the tip of December.
{The marketplace}’s success is the results of its technique to focus on a selected demographic of Web3 person: the professional dealer. The place platforms like OpenSea or Objkt attraction extra to extra informal NFT fanatics participating in smaller trades on an occasional foundation, Blur is supposed to hook those that have interaction in high-volume trades with cheap frequency. {The marketplace}’s stance on royalties, which has usually been to maintain them as little as doable and permit merchants the choice to implement them or not, speaks to this method. That is additionally why, whereas Web3 big OpenSea constantly has extra daily active users, Blur rivals and occasionally surpasses the platform in buying and selling quantity.
What’s $BLUR?
$BLUR is Blur’s long-awaited native token. It’s an ERC-20 governance token that may have a maximum supply of three billion. Twelve % of that provide is allocated to airdrop holders, with one other 78 % delegated to 2 lock-up contracts and 9 % owned by a multi-sig pockets managed by the Blur workforce. The earliest info out of CoinMarketCap put the token’s fully-diluted market cap at $14 billion, with a single $BLUR token presently being traded for simply shy of $5.00, however the newest figures drop each of these sharply to only below $2.5 billion and $0.69.
Customers have been amassing $BLUR within the type of airdrops from the platform over the previous couple of months. The first airdrop rewarded those that “caught round within the bear market,” i.e., anybody who traded NFTs on Ethereum within the six months earlier than Blur’s October launch. The second consisted of $BLUR care packages for platform customers who listed NFTs on Blur (after assembly a sure threshold) from October 19 to December 5. The third was aimed toward merchants who positioned bids on Blur and was the largest of the three airdrops. Lively users who kept up with this system have tremendously anticipated the launch of the token.
Pacman has stated that Blur has accomplished its finest to avoid incentivizing volume as a Web3 platform, as this encourages wash buying and selling, leading to distorted metrics and a lower-quality product to supply its person base. Having incentivized liquidity as an alternative through its second airdrop by rewarding customers who listed NFTs on its platform (and giving no reward to customers for the precise sale of these NFTs), they eliminated the wash-trading payoff. And with Blur’s third, bid-focused airdrop, {the marketplace} did a lot the identical, particularly by offering higher rewards to bids that had been nearer to flooring costs and higher mirrored the precise market worth of these NFTs.
$BLUR utility
$BLUR will likely be used as {the marketplace}’s governance token, permitting the platform to edge its manner towards a extra decentralized future. Blur can also be taking a novel method to the royalties debate with its token dynamics, as platform customers who select to uphold creator royalties are rewarded with extra of the token.
Web3 should wait to see how Blur’s customers react to the launch of the $BLUR token. Nansen, a Web3 analytics agency, not too long ago highlighted how LooksRare users responded to that platform’s native token when it launched, noting that almost all holders both offered, transferred, or staked their token. For now, customers ought to keep diligent to keep away from malicious actors attempting to siphon their tokens, as eager observers have seen fake Blur token contracts being deployed to idiot platform customers who aren’t cautious.
Token launches can do wonders for Web3 entities, however they have to be correctly navigated. For all Blur’s latest success, it doesn’t have the pedigree of an NFT mainstay just like the Bored Ape Yacht Membership. How its group responds to the launch (and what utility and worth it brings them) is more likely to have a large influence on the way forward for the up-and-coming market juggernaut. In the event that they’re not cautious, issues might get actual blurry actual fast.