The Foundation will close the NFT marketplace after the sale
In the year Foundation, one of the Ethereum-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces that boomed in 2021, is shutting down after sales to keep it running fell through.
The foundation's founder and CEO, Keyvon Tehranian, took to X on Wednesday to announce the closure of the marketplace following its acquisition by digital art distribution platform Blackdove.
Tehran did not directly mention Blackdove, but said the original goal of the sale was to keep the platform operating under new ownership. “It's no longer possible,” he said, adding that the foundation is not in a position to bring the marketplace back online.
In a message signed by the Bladove team, Foundation said the site would be back up for a short time so that users could delete NFTs.
The shutdown marks a slowdown in NFT trading activity after the 2021 boom, as low liquidity allowed fewer independent marketplaces to survive.
The foundation was launched in 2021
The foundation launched in early 2021, marking a big year for tokenized digital art, with some NFTs selling for as much as $69 million each.
According to Blackdove, the platform has facilitated more than $230 million in initial sales for artists worldwide, handling NFT sales for artists such as Jane Stark, James Jean and Reuben Wu.
The foundation is also the site of digital art by American hacker Edward Snowden, whose NFT piece “Stay Free” was sold in 2021 for 2,200 Ether (ETH), which was roughly $5 million at the time.
In the year As broad NFT activity cools off after peaking in 2022, platforms like Foundation have experienced declining liquidity and few sustained transaction flows. Blackdove announced its acquisition of Foundation in early 2025, with the platform announcing transition ownership a year later.
The consolidation of the NFT market is deepening
Foundation closures in 2021 will add to the list of NFT platforms that have recently closed or gone out of business as the sector's market size has fallen to pre-stimulus levels since February 2026.
Mint Blockchain, the NFT-linked infrastructure built on top of Ethereum, also announced on Friday that it has suspended operations and ordered users to withdraw assets.
This year alone, at least two other NFT platforms have announced they are discontinuing operations, including Gemini exchange-backed Nifty Gateway and social NFT platform Rodeo.
MakersPlace was shut down last year when NFT activity was on the decline, and X2Y2 wound up moving away from NFTs. Crypto exchange Bybit has closed its NFT marketplace due to declining trading volume.
Related: Yuga Labs Sues Artists Accused of Copying NFTs
Despite the broader decline, which accounted for more than 73% of all activity in the sector at press time, OpenSea remains the dominant NFT marketplace, with competition from rivals such as Blur, Defillama said.
Despite the sharp decline in NFTs, some industry experts, such as Yat Siu, chairman of Animoka Brands, predicted that the sector could recover and reach new highs.
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