Blur Moves Another Big Batch of $BLUR Tokens Into the Market

In keeping with its established token release schedule, Blur has moved another big batch of $BLUR tokens into the market.

In keeping with its established token release schedule, Blur has moved another big batch of $BLUR tokens into the market.

This month, 23.8 million $BLUR tokens—worth about $2.3 million—were sent to Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of the crypto exchange. The transfer is the latest installment in Blur’s monthly token unlock cycle, which began in mid-2023 and has since become a key factor in the token’s price behavior and circulating supply.

Blur began its token unlock process on June 15, 2023, as part of a larger plan to very slowly and very deliberately bring its full token supply into circulation. Since then, the project has set free a little over a third of its total $BLUR token supply—about 1.068 billion tokens (35.6%). Each batch of unlocked tokens has been sent off to Coinbase Prime, which very much suggests that Blur is making these tokens available for trading on the open market.

The resulting unlocked tokens had a mind-boggling combined valuation at the point of transfer of an enormous $340 million. This really highlighted the unlock operation’s scale and made us rethink the project’s present-value proposition. But alas, here we are: the token’s trading value today is at $0.096, and the average transfer price is being, by my estimate, around $0.318.

The average unlock price compared to the actual market price is getting larger. This emphasizes investor concern. Many in the community argue that the price going down is a direct result of too many unlocked tokens being dumped on the market. We have done quite a few unlocks now, and every one of them is basically creating a supply increase in the market. This is happening alongside demand that hasn’t really picked up in a major way.

Blur’s strategy for unlocking tokens closely mirrors a familiar crypto project playbook—gradually releasing tokens held by teams, investors, and communities in a way that (ideally) avoids sudden supply shocks. In practice, though, scheduled unlocks can create problems for a project and its token, particularly in a bear market, or when demand just can’t keep up with new supply. They’re a kind of necessary evil in crypto, a way to ensure the people and institutions that helped make a project happen get compensated for their unpaid work and that the project doesn’t just fall apart.

More than one-third of the total $BLUR supply has already been unlocked and is now in circulation, so the next phases of this release schedule have market participants’ full attention. If the trend seen so far continues, significant additional volumes of $BLUR will make their way into the markets over the next few months. The result could be a supply-induced downturn unless the markets can come up with some fresh $BLUR demand or supply-side use cases to absorb the unlocked tokens.

Blur, which has zeroed in on NFT marketplace aggregation and DeFi tools, accumulated a lot of hype upon launch and during its early operations. But as the crypto world changes and the speculative juices dry up, it’s become tougher for the company to keep pumpin’ up investor interest and the value of its token.

Blur remains busy running its unlock schedule, which is coming off with what seems to be lots of transparency and consistency. What does this mean for long-term holders of the token? Well, it may be a bit mixed. For institutional players, the predictable inflow of liquidity seems to be coming off fine and dandy, especially with its conjoined partner, Coinbase Prime. Market prices, however, don’t seem to be validating the token as retail investors and early adopters of this space who have bought in seem to be feeling the pinch.

The path forward for $BLUR may rely tremendously on how Blur’s main offering and community develop. More usefulness, more platform users, or a revival in the NFT market could all steady or reverse the token’s present course. Until that day, the Blur ecosystem has to make sure that it doesn’t too freely expand liquidity. If it does, value could start drifting down, and a down market for any token is a distant cousin to the cash cows we do stables in Web3.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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