Blur has become one of the most talked-about projects in the NFT space just five months after launching, a consequence of its monthly trading volume that has seen it flip OpenSea, X2Y2, and other well-known marketplaces.
In record time, Blur has cemented its status as the most patronized NFT marketplace for the buying and selling of digital collectibles having generated the most trading volume for all NFT platforms in 2023 so far.
During Quarter 1, Blur generated around $2.44 billion in volume with $1.03 billion coming in March alone. This represented 73% of the total NFT marketplace volume, which was around $1.4 billion.
Blur trading volume also crossed the $1 billion mark in February (total: $1.6 billion) and settled at $1.1 billion by the end of the month after generating $334m (out of $851m in total volume) during the opening month of the year.
Blur benefits from booming average sale prices
Blur’s average sale price for digital art is $1,540, with the best NFT sales on the marketplace during Q1 coming from BEEBLE BABY and Persistence of Time, which exchanged hands for $215,910 and $211,590 respectively.
While most NFT enthusiasts and collectors mightn’t have heard of the aforementioned projects, this goes to show the level of sales diversification on Blur.
The platform’s soaring cumulative volume came about as a result of the above-average daily liquidity poured into the marketplace by thousands of traders.
After starting the year with less than $20 million in daily sales from January 1 to the first week of February, Blur’s trades spiked substantially.
This resulted in the platform generating a minimum of $20 million in daily volume from the second week of February and eventually reaching a daily peak of approximately $120 million in the last week of the month.
While daily volume plunged below $60 million for most of March, it was enough to see Blur cement itself as the number one NFT marketplace for the trading of all NFT collections.
BLUR token failed to follow marketplace highs
Launched in February to support the project, the BLUR token has not enjoyed the same fortunes as the eponymous platform.
BLUR appeared on the crypto-asset price tracker CoinMarketCap on February 14 and opened with a trading price of $5.0031. Soon after, it reached its all-time high (ATH) price of $5.195 but soon fell sharply and closed on March 31 at $0.67, an 87% drop in value in less than two months.
OpenSea now second-largest NFT marketplace by volume
OpenSea held the title of being the largest NFT marketplace by volume for a long time. A consequence of the billions of dollars in monthly volume it generated throughout 2021 and 2022. But the platform’s monthly volume has failed to cross $400 million in 2023 so far.
During the first quarter, OpenSea’s volume was roughly $1.03 billion, with most of the liquidity coming in February when around $387 million was poured into NFT collections supported by the platform.
The lowest came in March when traders transacted around $289 million, which represented 27% of the total value within the period.
January 2023 was the last time OpenSea surpassed Blur in monthly volume, but the difference of $17.4 million was relatively minor when compared to the $720m gap between volumes in March when Blur came out on top.
While Blur trails OpenSea massively in terms of the number of all-time traders, the NFT marketplace, along with others such as X2Y2, LooksRare, Rarible, and Magic Eden, is catching up.
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