Foundation co-founder Kayvon Tehrani announced on April 16 that the NFT marketplace is shutting down. The team had been trying to sell the platform to a buyer who intended to continue operating it, but the deal fell through, and no new buyer was found. As a result, the project has begun winding down and has taken its infrastructure offline.
What Happens to NFTs and Smart Contracts
Foundation emphasizes that the service was non-custodial: even with the frontend offline, users’ assets remain under their control at the blockchain level.
NFTs listed on the marketplace are held in the platform’s smart contract. The team is working on a solution to let users withdraw their listings and retrieve their tokens from the contract.
One Year of Data Storage on IPFS
Tehrani stated that as part of the shutdown process, the team will continue to host media files and metadata for NFTs minted through Foundation for another year.
Users are advised to pin their files to IPFS themselves. The team points users to a guide from Pinata on how to back up NFT data.
Final Decision
Initially, the team hoped to preserve the platform through a sale and transfer control to a new operator. However, after the deal collapsed and the market situation was reassessed, they abandoned the idea.
The infrastructure has already been taken offline, and the service cannot be restored. The team is not considering a relaunch.
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