Blur token whales split after Binance announces perpetual contracts

NFT Marketplaces • April 28, 2023, 3:15AM EDT

Quick Take

Large holders of Blur’s governance token have taken opposing positions after Binance announced the launch of a blur/USDT perpetual contract.
The NFT marketplace has been losing out to rival OpenSea Pro in daily active users.

Following the announcement that Binance, the leading crypto exchange by volume, would launch perpetual futures contracts for NFT marketplace Blur's governance token, large holders of the token — commonly called whales — have displayed a mixed response.

Binance announced on April 27 that it would launch a perpetual futures contract to bet on the price of blur against the stablecoin tether with up to 20x leverage. The blur/USDT contract will go live at noon UTC today.

Earlier today, one whale purchased 1.39 million Blur governance tokens with one million USD Coin at an average price of $0.72. The swaps took place via decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch.

Conversely, another whale sold. A wallet with the Ethereum Name Service domain luggis.eth swapped 1.77 million BLUR for 1.2 million USDC at an average price of $0.68 per token. This netted luggis.eth a loss of approximately $295,000, an on-chain analyst known as Lookonchain noted on Twitter. Luggis.eth currently no longer holds any Blur governance tokens.

The market price for Blur's governance token is currently $0.72, according to data from Etherscan.

The price of Blur's governance token has increased by more than 15% over the past week. Source: TradingView

Blur has fewer daily active users than OpenSea Pro

Blur itself has seen declining volumes over recent weeks — with some claiming the NFT marketplace marketed for professional traders isn't particularly friendly for mainstream NFT traders.

"It's just been degens PvP'ing each other all year," one Twitter account tweeted, referring to the platform's temporary incentive program encouraging bidding over organic trading.

As The Block previously reported, rival NFT aggregator OpenSea Pro saw significant increases in active addresses and transaction volumes following its launch, taking the top share of transactions in a competitive market.

OpenSea Pro's share of daily active users has only increased since then. According to the data tracking platform Dune, it currently comprises 70% of the market.

OpenSea Pro's share of daily active users has increased steadily. Source: Dune / @onures

However, Blur has a slight lead in daily volume share among NFT aggregators at 51% to OpenSea Pro's 46%.

Disclaimer: Larry Cermak, CEO of The Block, is an angel investor in Blur.

About Author

Adam is the managing editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com, which he elevated into one of the leading crypto media brands at its peak as the editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].