Blur is an NFT marketplace and aggregator that disrupted the NFT trading landscape by targeting professional and high-volume traders. Founded by Tieshun Roquerre (known as “Pacman”) and launched in October 2022, Blur quickly captured significant market share from established players like OpenSea through an aggressive combination of zero-fee trading and token incentives.
The platform differentiated itself with a trading interface inspired by traditional financial tools rather than the gallery-style browsing experience of other NFT marketplaces. Features like real-time floor price tracking, trait-based filtering, portfolio analytics, and batch listing tools made Blur the preferred choice for NFT traders who move quickly and trade in volume.
Blur’s most impactful move was introducing the BLUR token airdrop system, which rewarded users based on their trading activity. This incentive structure attracted enormous liquidity to the platform and, within months of launch, Blur overtook OpenSea in daily trading volume — a remarkable achievement for a newcomer in a market many considered dominated.
The marketplace also sparked a heated debate about creator royalties. Blur initially made royalties optional, which attracted traders seeking lower costs but concerned creators who relied on secondary sale revenue. The platform later introduced mechanisms to balance trader and creator interests, though the royalty question remains contentious across the NFT ecosystem.
Beyond the marketplace, Blur launched Blend, a peer-to-peer NFT lending protocol that lets users borrow ETH against their NFT holdings. The team operates from San Francisco and has raised funding from Paradigm and other notable crypto investors. Blur’s rapid rise showed that even in a bear market, there was room for products that better served their target audience.
