Competition for the top NFT marketplace is heating up. Thanks to several strategic moves in recent months and weeks, the Blur NFT marketplace is giving OpenSea a run for its money.
On Wednesday, February 15th, the nascent marketplace passed OpenSea in daily Ethereum trading volume for the first time. Data analytics firm Nansen.ai reported daily trade volumes of 6,602 ETH for Blur, as opposed to OpenSea’s 5,649 ETH.
Blur also passed OpenSea in weekly trading volume — news that’s causing waves in the NFT space. According to a report by DappRadar, Blur generated $460 million worth of Ethereum NFT sales over the past seven days — an increase of over 360% from the previous week. OpenSea, on the other hand, only saw a 12% increase in trading volume to $107 million during the same period.
The surge in trading volume coincided with the airdrop of Blur’s governance token to NFT traders on Blur and other marketplaces. Since the airdrop, the Blur token has reached a market cap of $416 million. It’s currently priced at around $1 per token, and market data shows many NFT traders on the marketplace are using it to buy and sell NFTs.
But that’s not the only thing driving trading on the new marketplace. Blur’s Floor Sweeping feature allows NFT degens and whales to buy multiple NFTs at their lowest price. The result is that while there are fewer NFT traders on Blur than OpenSea, Blur traders are trading significantly more volume.
In other words, Blur has put forward a different marketplace model than OpenSea. It incentivizes heavy activity with token rewards, and rewards traders for using bidding pools that allow bulk NFT trading. It is also a zero-fee marketplace that rewards creators with full royalties.
And Blur — as its name suggests — is moving fast. It’s already teasing its next token airdrop, which it says will reward traders who bid on top collections closer to the floor price. The result has been many top NFT projects like Moonbirds, Otherside, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club are flying off the shelves this week, and some are saying the NFTs are being traded or flipped like altcoins.
Of course, not everyone believes Blur can continue its momentum to overtake OpenSea as the top NFT marketplace. But at the very least, Blur has created a name for itself, and positioned itself as a top NFT marketplace for pro NFT traders.
New NFT Marketplaces Continue to Emerge
A few weeks ago, most people in the NFT space hadn’t even heard of Blur. Now it’s the talk of the town. But Blur isn’t the only new NFT marketplace we’ve written about recently. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered several stories about new marketplaces arriving to the NFT space. Here are some of the top stories.
First, about three months ago, Mattel, a leading brand in children’s toys, launched an NFT marketplaces on the Flow blockchain. Mattel will use the marketplace to turn Mattel IP, like Hot Wheels, into digital art that can be bought, sold, and traded on the Flow network.
Next, two months ago, top crypto exchange Kraken released the public beta launch of the Kraken NFT marketplace. The marketplace launched with over 110 of highest-trading volume collections, and new collections are added regularly. The marketplace features zero gas fees, creator earnings, rarity ranks, and 200+ funding options.
Lastly, WISEKey, a global security, AI, blockchain, and loT (“internet of things”) recently launched the eTreeNFT.com marketplace. The marketplace is dedicated to creating sustainable asset-based markets for sequestering CO2. Users will be able to create NFTs linked to real-life trees that are monitored from space using WISESats.
To bet on an NFT marketplace at this point would be pure speculation, and that’s not something we do here at Rarity Sniper. But one thing is certain: It’s fun to talk about Blur’s battle with OpenSea, and the competition is bringing a lot of energy and excitement to the NFT space.