03.11.2023

Vlad Svitanko

7 min

RELATED

Blur is a decentralized NFT marketplace and aggregator built for professional NFT traders. What sets Blur apart is its sharp focus on the target audience, resulting in a rapid, high-quality, and highly versatile platform.

It goes the extra mile with several new features and improvements over other platforms, creating a smoother and more intuitive NFT trading experience.

Blur takes a unique approach by aggregating NFT listings from major marketplaces like OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2, all while allowing users to list their assets natively on Blur. What's truly special is that Blur doesn't charge any fees for selling NFTs. That's right, 0% fees, unlike many other marketplaces.

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General statistics of rewards:

124.632 - people got a drop from BLUR
2.889 $BLUR - tokens 1 participant received on average
$1/BLUR - the approximate price at the start of trading
~$3000 - the average drop amount

The Cryptorsy team is prepared to embrace such exciting adventures. Let's launch the next rocket together!

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This bold move caused a ripple effect, prompting even major players like OpenSea to follow Blur's lead. In essence, Blur is reshaping the NFT landscape and giving the power back to the community.

We always talk about how trust is the real deal when it comes to making a web3 project work. And Blur proved this point big time.

The very first tweet on their account was announcement of Twitter Space with Zeneca, a well-known NFT influencer. He is an angel investor for many NFT projects, running ahead, for Blur too.

Due to this, a huge number of NFT influencers became interested in the project and began to pick up the news. Blur's Twitter was flooded with retweets of popular KOLs.

The content itself was quite simple and at the same time viral. They posted new NFT collections with the slogan “The floor is on Blur”.

They kickstarted their user base through whitelists. Blur reached out to different communities, showcasing the platform's features and the diverse array of NFT collections available. Following these introductions, they extended invitations for a whitelist, granting access to the beta version of the product.

Well, let's move on to the most interesting part.

In October 2022, Blur launches the first phase of the first wave of its airdrop. In this phase, the project hands out the Care Packages containing BLUR tokens to users who have been actively involved in Ethereum NFT transactions over the last 6 months, especially those with significant trade volumes.

A massive crowd joined the drop, and everyone was curious about where the project planned to list its token.

All 360M tokens were сlaimed, all 100% of participants were able to earn their share.

According to Nansen, the twenty-three most active users received more than one million blur tokens. Currently, these tokens are worth just about $1.1 each. Moreover, one trader received more than 3.2 million BLUR tokens worth more than $3.5 million.

Blur raised $11 million in its seed round led by leading crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. As one of crypto’s most successful VC firms, Paradigm’s investment in Blur should not be underestimated. Paradigm's track record in the Web3 space is impressive, having previously invested in successful platforms: Coinbase, Gitcoin, Magic Eden, Cosmos, Phantom, Uniswap, Optimism, StarkWare, Zora, Aztec Network, OpenSea, Friend.tech and more.

What's even more exciting is that Blur's funding round attracted some heavyweights from the NFT and crypto spheres. Collectors like 6529, Cozomo de' Medici, Zeneca, and MoonOverlord joined in, signaling that Blur's goals are in sync with the broader NFT community.

This not only caught the attention of potential investors but also strengthened the community's trust.

The second part of the airdrop involved offering rewards based on trading volumes within the Blur marketplace. If they had initially cast a bait, during this stage, they reeled it in. This part of the airdrop encouraged traders to sell and trade specifically on Blur.

In just the first two months following the announcement of the 1st and 2nd airdrop phases, Blur's trading volumes skyrocketed by hundreds of times. They even surpassed their largest direct competitor called OpenSea. The infographics below provide a more detailed view of this remarkable achievement.

With a supply base at a lower price than other markets, Blur announced its third phase of airdrop with a focus on building the demand side. At the same time as the third part, Blur launched their bidding contract, which allows traders to bid for collections more efficiently.

Blur also encourages traders to create the best bid-ask spread possible, and traders who bid better can get more rewards.

Example of airdrop logic:

This airdrop phase served as the gateway for a broader audience. Participants didn't need to engage in trading or accumulate volumes, which led to hundreds of times more people joining in.

Tieshun Roquerre, a 24-year-old from San Francisco, is the Co-Founder of Blur. In an interview with Coindesk, he mentioned his connection with Paradigm dating back to 2018 when they invested in one of his early projects.

Tieshun, who also goes by the name "Pacman", decided to reveal his identity after the BLUR airdrop. As a MIT dropout with a Thiel Fellowship, he's got some unique experiences. In the past, he founded Namebase, a tool for finding decentralized domain names in 2018.

Interestingly, the rest of the Blur team remains anonymous. Roquerre's choice to stay hidden for a long time actually worked in Blur's favor. When he finally stepped into the spotlight, it got people excited about Blur again.

Since 4 months after launching, 146.823 users have traded $1.2Billion dollars worth of NFTs on Blur.

That’s insane!

This is really one of the biggest drops that was in the crypto, if not the biggest. Everything is perfect here - product, marketing, strategy, selection of target audience, airdrop.

Everyone said that there will be no long term. They said, as always, everyone will take the drop and the project will disappear.

But:

Almost 6 months after the first drop, Blur still holds the decisive lead in sales volumes.

And it conquered more than a third of the market in terms of their number. Considering its positioning as a platform for pro traders.

Below is a detailed chart of changes in weekly trading volume distributed across sites. You can evaluate the dynamics for yourself and see all the milestones of this confrontation.

Blur remains the leader among NFT marketplaces with a 60% market share of trading volumes.

• The phased airdrop concept was a huge success. Splitting it into phases was a stroke of genius. Participants knew they could wait for the next phase and still have a chance to earn something.

• The project's success was the result of multiple factors. First and foremost, it offered a high-quality product that quickly rose to the top of the NFT market. The innovative web3 marketing strategy, which uniquely incentivized people to join the project and the airdrop, played a crucial role. Additionally, the project's clear positioning as being for pro traders was a key factor, and its platform's functionality supported this.

• What's most intriguing is that the project has already announced the 2nd season of the airdrop. People are expecting an airdrop that's ten times larger. This demonstrates that the Blur team is genuinely skilled in their field and can repeatedly attract and incentivize participants.

We believe that most crypto projects aspire to create a remarkable story that will be remembered for a long time, propelling the project to the top.

This move instantly builds trust with the early users of the platform.

The goal here is pretty clear: attract more traders to the platform, especially those who are already active. They demonstrated their platform's potential and showed what it could offer to the audience. In a way, they "fed" the appetite for their platform.

This move triggered excitement and buzz around the project, particularly among NFT influencers.

Moreover, the 2nd part rewarded traders for using Blur's new features, such as their advanced order placement tools, like the order by NFT feature reserve price, floor price NFT, etc. Phase 2 also provided incentives for traders who frequently listed their items, particularly those from actively traded collections, and encouraged listings of blue-chip NFTs.

Notably, Blur also encourages users to stay loyal to the marketplace rather than other NFT marketplaces.

Blur kept it simple and clear. They announced the listing on each exchange in their tweets. The list includes big names like OKX, Bybit, Gate.іo, KuCoin, Bitget, and HTX.

In addition, it's important to discuss the project's tokenomics. Here's a detailed breakdown: 51% of the tokens are earmarked for the community. This allocation not only adds to the project's credibility but also provides a strong incentive for community involvement.