New NFT Marketplace Blur Closes in on OpenSea in 24-Hour Trade Volume

New NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace Blur conducted 1,160 ETH of single-day trading on its platform, according to Dune Analytics, placing it just behind OpenSea in terms of 24-hour trading volume.

According to the dashboard, which was created by NFT data aggregator Sealaunch, OpenSea still maintains a sizable lead on Blur, although trading on Wednesday topped other Ethereum blockchain-based competitors like LooksRare and X2Y2.

The platform also had 2,527 unique users on Wednesday and made 10,911 sales. Other data-tracking tools, including DappRadar, which doesn't yet track data from Blur, supported the dashboard's 24-hour trading volume numbers, placing OpenSea with $8.9 million in the top spot. Blur was second, followed by X2Y2 with $1.7 million and LooksRare with $406,000.

Blur celebrated the milestone on Twitter, saying that it "became the #2 NFT marketplace by volume (excluding wash trades)!" as well as the "#1 aggregator" for NFTs.

Blur launched a beta version last week to buzzy reception, offering zero trading fees and an airdrop of its native token to traders on the platform. It also boasts over $14 million of backing from venture-capital giant Paradigm, NFT-native investment fund 6529, digital art collector Cozomo Medici and others.

The key selling point is its targeting of “professional” NFT traders with features like “floor sweeping” across multiple marketplaces, reveal “sniping” and advanced portfolio analytics tools.