Coinbase stated that when BLUR liquidity is sufficient, they will launch the BLUR-USD trading pair. The exchange marks BLUR as an experimental token, which is not available in all jurisdictions. The Blur marketplace for professional traders airdropped BLUR governance tokens in care packages to early traders in October 2022. At the time, Blur.io said it would unlock tokens in January 2023, but later delayed the launch to February 14, 2023, amid technical challenges.
Crypto projects use airdrops to create buzz. In most cases, users are eligible to earn free crypto coins by performing certain tasks that draw attention to a particular project.
Blur's care package has three rarity levels: uncommon, rare, and legendary, among which the legendary rarity level contains the most BLUR. Within six months of Blur’s launch, Blur’s first round of airdrops rewarded active traders with rare care packages. The second airdrop occurred in November 2022, rewarding traders with rare care packages. The third airdrop will also unlock the tokens on February 14, 2023, and receive the legendary gift pack.
At press time, BLUR was trading at $25.25, up 500% on the day in anticipation of token unlocking.
In other news, Coinbase’s much-hyped NFT marketplace has been struggling to compete with the incumbent OpenSea, not to mention Blur itself.
On February 2, 2023, Fortune reported that the market was trading at a paltry $150, compared to $1,500 during the week to that date. For comparison, OpenSea had a transaction volume of $10 million between January 26, 2023 and February 2, 2023.
According to the Dune Analytics dashboard, Blur.io’s market volume exceeded OpenSea’s on 12 of the 13 days in February. Sales peak at about $17 million on February 9, 2023, compared to $14 million for OpenSea.
At the time, Coinbase denied that its pause on new artist releases marked the platform’s demise, saying it was working to improve the tools requested by artists.
