The world of NFTs is becoming increasingly competitive, as new marketplaces emerge and existing ones such as OpenSea fight for dominance. One recent entrant to this space is Blur, which made waves with an extremely successful airdrop campaign, propelling the aggregator to the top.
Launched in October 2022, the NFT marketplace and aggregator Blur allows users to compare NFT prices across various marketplaces, manage portfolios with analytical tools, and purchase NFTs. Through strategic campaigns, Blur surpassed the established leader OpenSea and established itself as a serious player in the NFT space.
Blur airdrop campaign leads to success
The Blur airdrop was divided into three phases and was the culmination of a multi-month process aimed at rewarding users while promoting the growth and liquidity of the new marketplace. The first airdrop round was distributed to all those who had traded NFTs in any way in the 6 months leading up to the launch of the Blur marketplace. The second round was reserved for traders who had actively sold NFTs on Blur until November. The third and largest airdrop was distributed to traders who had placed bids on the platform.
Rather than issuing tokens directly to users, Blur opted for a more engaging approach. Using a gamified system, the marketplace rewarded users based on their own "loyalty points." For example, users who sold a blue-chip NFT or traded a high volume of tokens on the platform were rewarded with more BLUR than those who simply listed a regular NFT. As a result, Blur quickly rose to become one of the leading NFT marketplaces in terms of user activity and transaction volume. BLUR will serve as the native governance token of the platform.
Competition in the NFT market
Among the largest NFT trading platforms are the long-standing number one, OpenSea, as well as competitors SuperRare and Nifty Gateway, all of which have their own unique features and user bases. NFT aggregators such as Blur and Gem provide a convenient user experience, giving them an edge over the competition.
Instead of having to navigate multiple offerings and marketplaces, users can access NFTs in one place and both buy and sell them. Blur allows creators and collectors to purchase multiple NFTs from different projects at their lowest possible price. This technique is called "sweeping" and has become a hit among experienced traders.
Valuable liquidity in an illiquid market
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital blockchain assets with a distinct digital identity and ownership. Unlike traditional collectibles such as art, which exist in physical forms, NFTs exist exclusively in the digital world. As each NFT is unique and cannot be exchanged for another NFT, there are no highly liquid markets as with cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the NFT market is relatively new with limited demand and supply, which also contributes to its illiquidity.
However, with its ongoing Airdrop campaign for bidders, Blur is bringing liquidity to a classically illiquid market. To receive loyalty points, "airdrop farmers" are bidding millions of dollars on the floor price of the largest collections. Collectors can easily sell their artworks at a minimum price instead of having to wait patiently for a buyer.
Someone just dumped 71 BAYC into blur bids for ~5545E ($9,151,000)
More volume in a couple transactions than we used to see in an entire day a couple months ago and the floor didnt move a penny lmao pic.twitter.com/Fd1KOCeLKj
— Cirrus (@CirrusNFT) February 22, 2023
