Foundation, the invite-only NFT platform known for high-profile digital art sales, has shut down. Founder Kayvon Tehranian said in a public statement that the company had signed a sale agreement earlier this year and expected the buyer to take over operations, but the acquirer withdrew before the transaction closed. After reassessing the market, he said there were no other buyers worth pursuing. The platform’s infrastructure is now offline and will not return.
A platform closely tied to the 2021 NFT boom
Foundation was launched in February 2021 by Kayvon Tehranian and Matthew Vernon on Ethereum. It built its identity around invite-only access and 1/1 digital art, becoming one of the more clearly positioned platforms during the NFT surge. At its peak, it brought together about 25,000 creators and 20,000 collectors, with creator earnings topping $40 million, or roughly 54,992 ETH.
Several widely cited NFT sales took place on the platform. Edward Snowden’s Stay Free sold for 2,224 ETH, while Nyan Cat made its first sale there for 300 ETH. Activity on Foundation also included works or records tied to Aphex Twin, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, and Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann.
Users still hold their NFTs on-chain
Tehranian said Foundation never held custody of user assets. That means the shutdown of the front end does not change ownership of NFTs, which remain under the control of holders on-chain. Still, the loss of platform access creates practical issues, especially for backups and listed items.
The team said it plans to keep IPFS pinning active for one year so that media files and metadata tied to Foundation assets remain available during that period. Users are being asked to back up important IPFS-based NFTs themselves through tools such as Pinata to reduce the risk of metadata failure later on.
Listed NFTs remain in contracts as retrieval details are prepared
NFTs that are still listed on the Foundation marketplace remain inside the platform’s smart contracts. The team described those contracts as non-custodial, but with the interface gone, users cannot interact with them through the original front end. Foundation said it is working on a simpler way for users to retrieve those NFTs, with details to be released later.
The closure comes as the NFT market continues to struggle with a sharp drop in market value and weak trading volumes, cutting into the fee income that once supported platforms built during the prior cycle.