Blur’s frontend is shutting down after a 99.5% volume collapse

November 12 is the hard date. The on-chain contracts stay live, but Blend, the peer-to-peer perpetual NFT lending protocol, stops matching new loans the same day. Blur made the announcement on X, its first post there in more than a year.

Anyone holding open Blend positions has until that date to repay outstanding loans or let them default. Blur has said a withdrawal interface will remain accessible after the frontend closes. Users who relied on the website will need a separate interface to reach the on-chain marketplace going forward.

The volume numbers explain a lot. Monthly trading on Blur peaked at roughly $1.43 billion in March 2023, then fell to under $7 million by March 2026, according to CoinDesk — a decline of more than 99.5% by the reported figures. The marketplace launched on October 19, 2022, and hit that peak only months later.

The token reflects the same trajectory. BLUR dropped more than 20% when the shutdown was announced and is trading around $0.015, with a market cap of approximately $44 million. It traded above $5 in early 2023.

Blur hasn’t said publicly why it’s closing the frontend or winding down new Blend loan matching. The website still advertises more than $7.4 billion in lifetime trading volume, but that figure is cumulative — March 2026’s monthly number was below $7 million.

That’s the project’s strongest remaining argument. But there’s no reported transaction-fee revenue to distribute, and the interface those holders relied on is going dark.

This is also the second closure tied to founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre. Blast, his other project, announced its shutdown on October 2. Blast had drawn more than $2 billion in assets at its peak; by the time developers announced closure, that figure had fallen to roughly $32 million. Blast users have until October 26 to withdraw through the network’s standard interface, two and a half weeks before Blur’s own deadline.

Both closures land against a broader contraction in NFT activity. September NFT sales came in at $167 million across 2.9 million transactions; January 2022’s peak was $6 billion across 13.7 million transactions.

Blur built its early volume by targeting professional traders: faster execution, low fees, token rewards, eventually overtaking OpenSea. That model drew real criticism. Collector Cryptobscure wrote, “Good riddance. You destroyed NFTs. Please shut down and never come back.” Collector starfruit was more sardonic: “You may not have been able to complete your mission to destroy NFTs. But you acted with extreme determination and tried everything. Congratulations to us for surviving you.”

Two clocks are running. Blast withdrawals close October 26. Blur’s frontend goes down, Blend stops matching loans, and Blend borrowers must repay or default on November 12. BLUR is still attached to an on-chain marketplace and a fee switch — just one whose monthly volume had already fallen below $7 million before anyone announced a shutdown.