Emerging NFT platform Blur has outperformed OpenSea in May’s trading volume, asserting dominance even amidst an overall market decline. Remarkably, Blur’s sales reached $442 million, far exceeding OpenSea’s $183 million, as reported by DappRadar on Thursday.
Conquering over 65% of the Market Share
Currently, Blur boasts a 65% share of the entire NFT market, while OpenSea, despite having around 300,000 more users, trails at just 27%.
Blur, established in October, is best known for its innovative token airdrops, granting free cryptocurrency to dedicated users. These strategies have significantly driven Blur’s growth. Some of the top recipients during the first airdrop reportedly walked away with over $1 million in free crypto.
Blend launch propelled Blur’s success
Recently, Blur launched Blend, an NFT lending product. Astonishingly, Blend accounts for 50% of Blur’s total trading volume within just a month of its introduction. As per Dune’s data, 21,962 loans were facilitated, totaling around $319 million. Blend has surpassed all NFT lending protocols in performance with 82% market share.
Critics, however, have raised eyebrows at Blur’s rapid success. The marketplace has been accused of encouraging excessive trading by users striving to earn maximum free crypto. CryptoSlam, a crypto analytics platform, decided to retract $577 million worth of trades previously accredited to Blur, citing “market manipulation”.
Notwithstanding the success of platforms like Blur, the overall NFT market experienced a downturn in May. For the first time this year, monthly trading volumes fell below the $1 billion threshold, plummeting 44% to $675 million from April’s $1.2 billion.
Interestingly, the number of overall sales did not plummet as drastically, showing a decrease of about 24% from 4.8 million to 3.6 million. Despite the downturn, with upstart platforms like Blur pushing boundaries, the NFT market dynamics continue to evolve in intriguing ways.
This information is published by the NFT News media team.
