Key Takeaways:
- NFT marketplace Blur.io launched its token airdrop on Feb 14.
- However, BLUR price dropped 90% within a couple of hours of airdrop.
NEW DELHI (CoinChapter.com) — NFT marketplace Blur.io launched the airdrop of its governance token BLUR on Feb 14. However, BLUR airdrop recipients started selling their token holdings immediately after the platform unlocked the 360 million airdrop tokens.
The BLUR token price tanked more than 90% from its launch price of $5 within a couple of hours. BLUR price’s rapid descent suggests traders might not have a positive outlook for the token’s long-term prospects.
Although BLUR’s price recovered slightly during trading later, the token remained 84% below its ATH of $5.02 at the time of writing.
In recent months, Blur.io has established itself as one of the more prominent rivals of the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Blur launched in Oct, rewarding users with “care packages” representing token allotments.
The Blur team allotted tokens in three waves, with the first going to several Ethereum NFT traders to attract more users to the marketplace. In the second wave, users who listed their NFTs on the Blur marketplace were eligible for the airdrop.
The third wave of airdrops would go to traders who bid on any NFT on the platform.
However, the airdrop kept getting delayed as developers were likely looking for a more positive market for the Blur token airdrop.
BLUR Obscure Tokenomics Behind Price Plunge
Meanwhile, the obscurity of BLUR’s tokenomics and no word from developers pushed market sentiment against the token.
In addition, the largest airdrop recipient address (0xd5ee00b7babd9374d32159cd7cd82bb99ef831fd) might have been involved in wash trading. In detail, wash trading is a market manipulation technique in which investors simultaneously buy and sell the same financial instruments.
The action creates artificial activity in the marketplace. For example, the wallet’s account activity on OpenSea has helped generate massive trading volume. Furthermore, the top 3 airdrop recipient wallets have engaged in multiple sales with each other, bolstering the argument for wash trading on Blur.
Blur has also accepted that wash trading is prevalent on its platform, boasting in a tweet that it reached a total trading volume of $1.18 billion in the past four months, “wash trading excluded.”
Additionally, crypto Twitter took to shilling the BLUR token, with multiple accounts tweeting identical posts that happily announced the amount of BLUR airdrops they received. Social media hype is often a potent bullish cue for small-cap tokens.
Furthermore, multiple users complained that they could not open their care packages.
