Community discusses Pacman possibly launching next project after Blast and Blur on trench.com
The NFT market Blur announced it will discontinue the blur.io frontend on November 12, 2026, while the market protocol will continue to operate on-chain, with the BLUR token still controlling its fee switch. On the same date, its NFT lending protocol Blend will stop matching new loans, and borrowers must repay before the deadline or face default, after which frontend tools will be provided to assist in asset withdrawal.
This move follows the announcement on October 2 by Blast, an Ethereum L2 network founded by Tieshun Roquerre (Pacman), that it would shut down. Blast stated that operational costs exceeded revenues and there was a lack of a sustainable economic path, urging users to withdraw assets back to the Ethereum mainnet by October 26. Blur's monthly trading volume has dropped from a peak of approximately $1.43 billion in March 2023 to less than $7 million by March 2026.
Community discussions suggest that Pacman may be related to trench.com. The domain's private testing page previously indicated to contact Pacman for access; trade.blur.io redirected to trench.com, and both share similarities in infrastructure and subdomain patterns; the @trenchdotcom account was noted to have Pacman as its first follower, and some users claimed to have participated in product testing in April this year. As of now, Pacman has not officially confirmed any relationship with the project.
Trench.com is described as a Meme trading terminal comparable to Axiom and GMGN, with the name derived from the term "trenches" used in Meme trading. The production environment SSL certificate has been active since early 2026, and private testing access requires a wallet connection. Analysts believe it may be built on Blur-related infrastructure rather than being a standalone new project.
The frontend shutdown terminates the Blur user interface and lending matching, while the on-chain protocol and fee switch control are retained. The event was driven by an announcement from the project team. Following a significant drop in NFT trading volume, the operational costs at the application layer are under pressure; if a potential new terminal is related to existing infrastructure, it may shift resources from the NFT market to Meme trading tools, but the lack of official confirmation keeps the connection at the infrastructure and community observation level.
Source: Public information
ABAB AI Insight
Pacman (Tieshun Roquerre) entered the professional NFT trading space with Blur in 2022, capturing over 70% of Ethereum's NFT trading volume by March 2023 through low fees, batch tools, and token incentives. He then launched the L2 network Blast with native yield, attracting significant deposits before its mainnet launch. In October 2026, it was announced that Blast would shut down due to unsustainable economics, and that the Blur frontend and new loan matching for Blend would cease, while retaining control over the on-chain protocol and fee switch.
Resources are being stripped from high operational cost frontends and L2 application layers, shifting towards retaining low-cost on-chain protocols. Blur will terminate the user interface and lending matching while maintaining the protocol's operational state; community observations indicate that trench.com shares overlaps with Blur-related domains in subdomains, redirects, and certificate logs, with the private testing page previously pointing directly to Pacman, but the founder has not publicly confirmed this. This path of contraction from a validated application layer to potential new tools allows BLUR token holders to retain control over the fee switch, while frontend users must seek alternative interfaces.
Similar to OpenSea reducing its product line after the NFT cycle or early DeFi protocols halting frontend maintenance after a drop in trading volume, crypto projects are shifting from expansion phase application layer investments to protocol layer retention. Currently, Pacman's related projects are in a phase of exiting the NFT market and L2 applications while exploring Meme trading terminals, but the connection still relies on infrastructure overlap rather than official statements.
This essentially represents a restructuring of the industry chain. After a significant decline in NFT trading volume, the marginal costs of frontend maintenance and lending matching exceed revenues, leading the project to choose to terminate the user interface while retaining on-chain contracts and fee control. This change occurs because application layer revenues cannot cover ongoing operations, while the infrastructure needs of Meme trading terminals overlap with existing matching and wallet connection capabilities, allowing resources to potentially shift from the contracted NFT frontend to new trading tool interfaces.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
The cost of shutting down the frontend is lower than the sunk cost of maintaining the protocol
Unannounced infrastructure overlaps signal the next product
Application layer exits first after trading volume declines, followed by protocol layer retention