The dumping of 1,010 NFTs by a prominent whale may be a symptom of the new Blur marketplace rewards scheme.
A known ‘whale’ named Machi Big Brother dumped 1,060 non-fungible tokens over a 48-hour selling spree. In total, the dump amounted to $18.6M, in what is being called the biggest dump in NFT history.
What is more, Machi Big Brother then bought back 991 NFTs in a bizarre twist.
A whale is someone who owns a large amount of cryptocurrency, and can manipulate the market with their trading activity. Consequently, whale activity causes a ripple effect, and can lead to drastic changes in market prices.
For instance, Machi Big Brother sold 90 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, and that resulted in the floor price for BAYC NFTs dropping 12%.
Nansen’s content lead Andrew Thurman provided commentary on the unravelling story.
On chain madness
Andrew Thurman believes that the dumping of so many NFTs reflects “naked market manipulation”, “degeneracy”, and “mental illness”. Moreover, Thurman is under the impression that Machi Big Brother’s actions are linked to his involvement with Blur marketplace.
Blur is an emerging marketplace, and is currently usurping the giant Opensea in terms of trading volume and activity. In fact, the reason for Blur’s recent success is linked to its free token airdrops and rewards scheme.
Essentially, Blur is aggressively rewarding professional traders with free $BLUR tokens if they meet the requirements of the marketplace. Furthermore, the marketplace is rewarding traders who bid for, and sell, NFTs in high volume.
In fact, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Blur rewards scheme has been Machi Big Brother, who recently scooped $1.8M $BLUR as a reward for his activity, and sold it for $1.3M.
More to come
Blur is causing a big stir in the market, and it’s only just getting started. Indeed, with Blur’s next airdrop looming, we can expect more major whale activity as Blur prepares to airdrop 300M $BLUR tokens.
To qualify for its free token airdrops, you need to show lots of activity, and loyalty, to the marketplace in various ways. For example, you gain a 100% loyalty score for not listing NFTs on other marketplaces like Opensea.
