Blur → OpenSea

Blur, the NFT marketplace, announced on 12 October 2026 that it will retire its blur.io website on 12 November 2026. The company says the change applies only to the website. The Blur marketplace protocol stays operational on-chain, and holders of the BLUR token keep control of its fee switch. Blend, Blur’s peer-to-peer NFT lending product, stops matching new loans on 12 November. Borrowers can repay before that date or let their loans default. Blur says it will provide a tool afterwards to help people withdraw assets from Blend, but the coverage reviewed gave no date for it.

What the shutdown changes

Your NFTs are held in your own wallet, not by the marketplace, so closing the website does not remove them. What disappears is the interface most Blur users relied on to list, bid and manage loans. Because the contracts remain live, someone who can interact with them directly could in principle still trade, but that is a technical route and not a replacement for a marketplace. Blur has also warned about impersonators and says its only official account is @blur_io, so treat any message about claiming or moving assets with suspicion.

The announcement came ten days after Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network created by Blur’s founder, said it would shut down. Users of that network had until 26 October to withdraw through its normal interface.

What OpenSea costs

OpenSea is free to join and browse. According to its Help Center, the marketplace fee is 1% when you sell an NFT, and it is included in the price buyers see. Minting an NFT in a primary drop carries a 10% fee. Swaps are listed at 0%, though third-party provider fees can apply, and private listings are listed at 0% at the time of writing. Fees are set when a listing or offer is created, and OpenSea may waive them on some sales.

One discrepancy is worth knowing about. OpenSea’s developer documentation shows a 2.5% marketplace fee in an example and marks it as required. The page is aimed at developers and does not say when any fee takes effect, so it is not clear how it relates to the Help Center figure. Check the fee displayed on the listing screen before you confirm a sale.

Creator earnings are a separate matter. Each creator sets a rate for their collection, and a collection can either enforce it or leave it optional for the seller. Gas goes to blockchain validators, not to OpenSea: sellers pay it when listing for the first time or accepting an offer, and buyers pay it when purchasing.

Coverage and fit

OpenSea’s Help Center lists more than twenty compatible chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and Solana. That should cover most collections that traded on Blur, but confirm that your specific collection appears before relying on it. The trade-off is in the product. Blur was built around fast bidding and professional traders, and OpenSea is a broader marketplace with a wider audience and more fee rules to read. Neither article reviewed here compares the two on liquidity, so no claim is made about which gives better prices.

Before 12 November

• Repay or decide what to do about any open Blend loan. OpenSea does not replace Blend.
• Cancel active Blur listings and bids so they do not linger.
• Connect the same wallet to OpenSea and confirm that your NFTs appear.
• Check the fee and any creator earnings shown before you list.
• Watch for fake announcements and use only @blur_io.

Other options

OpenSea is one of several marketplaces. Compare fee levels and the collections you hold on any alternative before moving, since fees and creator rules differ.