Amidst the prolonged slump in NFT prices, Pacman, the founder of Blur, a rival to OpenSea and catering to savvy traders, stepped up to defend the marketplace. Responding to Twitter chatter blaming Blur for the market decline, Pacman, whose real name is Tieshun Roquerre, took to Twitter to address the concerns.
“We launched in October 22. Since then, some floor prices have gone up, some floor prices have gone down,” Pacman tweeted on July 5. “One of the few times floor prices went up in concert was when we injected liquidity into NFTs via our airdrop. One of the few times floor prices went down in concert was when $40m of liquidity was removed via the Azuki mint.”
Pacman emphasized that the market’s movement primarily depends on liquidity and not specifically on Blur. He refrained from placing blame, stating, “not throwing stones, the market just moves based on liquidity more than anything else.”
The NFT market has experienced a subdued state for over a year, especially when compared to the astounding heights it reached in 2021. Even premier collections have been adversely affected recently.
According to NFT Price Floor data, the floor price, representing the cheapest entry point for an NFT collection of Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club currently stands at 28 ETH (approximately $53,000). This price is the lowest it has been in over 18 months, less than half of its value at the beginning of the year. Similarly, Azuki, another popular collection, suffered a floor price crash after Chiru Labs, its creator, mishandled the launch of a new set of NFTs last week.
Both instances prompted fingers to be pointed at Blur, the Paradigm-backed marketplace catering to professional traders.
Lior Messika, an investor in Yuga Labs through his venture firm Eden Block, noted a shift among NFT whales who had previously identified as “collectors” to now brand themselves as traders or even “Blur farmers.” He remarked that the space had become distorted by the “fear and greed of a few traders.”
While criticism has surfaced linking Blur to the market downturn, Pacman’s response highlights the intricate role liquidity plays in NFT pricing. It remains to be seen how the market will evolve and if Blur’s defense will assuage concerns surrounding the current state of the NFT space.
