BREAKING NEWS: Once Popular 1/1 Art NFT Marketplace Foundation Is Shutting Down, According To Founder Kayvon

It’s a somber day for art NFTs as another big name from bull runs past has officially announced that it’s closing its digital doors.

On Wednesday, Foundation Founder Kayvon revealed that the once popular marketplace Foundation will be winding down operations after a deal to sell the platform to software company Black Dove fell through.

 

“Earlier this year we entered into an agreement to sell the Foundation platform to a buyer who intended to continue its operations,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the sale did not complete as expected, and the buyer is no longer able to operate the platform. Given the current state of the market, we don't believe there is another buyer worth pursuing. Our goal in pursuing a sale was always to see Foundation live on — to find someone who would keep the platform running and serve this community going forward. That's no longer possible. As part of our wind-down process, our infrastructure has already been spun down, and we're not in a position to bring the platform back online.”

 

 

 

From Edward Snowden’s Stay Free NFT, which sold for $5.4 million, to Kevin Rose’s column turned NFT fetching $560,000, Foundation was once the place to be for artists and collectors alike during the height of the 2021 bull run!

 

While Foundation is shutting down its frontend, Kayvon reminded users that their NFTs aren’t going anywhere because they live on Ethereum, not the platform itself.

"This is exactly the kind of moment that validates Foundation's commitment to decentralization. Foundation is not a custodial platform, and even if its frontend service is no longer functioning, your assets remain in your control onchain," he wrote. "We plan to continue pinning the underlying media and metadata of Foundation-issued assets for another year. During this one-year window, it's critical that the community take responsibility for personally pinning assets they care about If you currently have an NFT listed on Foundation's marketplace, your NFT is held in our marketplace smart contract. While the contract is non-custodial, our frontend was the primary interface for interacting with it. We're working on providing an easy way for you to unlist and retrieve any NFTs currently held in the contract, and will share details soon.”

 

The Gazette will continue to follow Foundation and will let you know when more information about retrieving NFTs becomes available. Stay tuned for updates.