Foundation

Foundation was a marketplace where artists sold digital art as NFTs, described by the company as a curated auction platform, with curation in place of an open listing model. It was the main product of Foundation Labs, Inc., a company its archive site dates to 2020 through 2026. The marketplace launched in 2021 and later added editions, larger drops, and galleries and exhibitions run by curators. Artists named on the archive include Jen Stark, Reuben Wu, Jenny Holzer, Flume, Aphex Twin and Charli XCX.

Foundation Labs also built Rodeo, an onchain social sketchbook launched in 2024 and shut down in 2026 after its growth stalled, and Aura, a 2025 prediction game about television. The company's investor page lists, among others, Chris Dixon of a16z, Jesse Walden of Variant, 1kx, Standard Crypto, Nas, Jay Z and Naval Ravikant, without amounts or dates. Its last leadership team was Kayvon Tehranian (CEO), Elpizo Choi (CTO) and Matthew Vernon (CDO).

No. According to Foundation Labs, it agreed in February 2026 to sell the marketplace and brand to Blackdove Art, which planned to keep it running. The closure letter on foundation.app, dated 27 April 2026, says the sale did not complete, ownership returned to Foundation Labs, and the platform is offline. The company says it will not relaunch. Its reasons are that the team that built the platform has gone, it lacks the money and operational capacity to run it, and it does not want to risk another uncertain sale. The letter gives no exact date on which the site stopped working.

So there is no marketplace to buy, sell or bid on. Rating pages and older guides that describe Foundation as a live venue are out of date, including our own Foundation card among NFT marketplaces, which predates the closure.

Foundation was non-custodial, so its closure does not take anyone's NFTs. Tokens remain in the wallets that hold them, and Foundation's smart contracts keep working onchain without the website. Three things do need attention.

• Cancel open listings. An NFT listed or held in auction through Foundation's market contract stays listed until cancelled. The letter says this now has to be done manually, without the Foundation interface, using community-built delisting tools or by calling the contract directly.
• Save the media. Foundation keeps its IPFS gateway running only until 27 April 2027. After that, an artwork's image or video loads only if its IPFS content is pinned somewhere else. Find each token's CID in its metadata and pin it with a pinning service or your own node.
• Move creator contracts if you still mint. Transient Labs said on 30 April 2026 that it supports importing Foundation creator contracts, and other community projects announced in April 2026 that they were archiving Foundation's history and media.

Do this from your own wallet, and check every tool's address before signing. A shutdown attracts fake 'Foundation migration' sites. Our self-custody security checklist covers what to check before approving a transaction.

Foundation's contracts are open source in the f8n/fnd-protocol repository on GitHub, last updated in February 2023. The repository's README sends security reports for mainnet contracts to an Immunefi bounty program, but that program's page no longer loads, and Foundation's developer docs site no longer resolves. The closure letter says the company will still give technical guidance to developers building on its contracts and infrastructure.

There is no customer support desk left. Foundation's remaining official channels are the closure letter at foundation.app, the archive at foundation-labs.xyz and the @foundation account on X.

Foundation Labs closed its archive site with a short summary of each project, describing its six years as a run of experiments in onchain ownership for creators.

• 2020: Foundation Labs, Inc. begins operating.
• 2021: The Foundation marketplace launches for curated digital art.
• 2024: Foundation Labs launches Rodeo, an onchain social app.
• 2025: Foundation Labs releases Aura, a prediction game for TV fans.
• February 2026: Sale of the Foundation marketplace and brand to Blackdove Art is announced.
• 27 April 2026: Closure letter says the sale failed and Foundation will stay offline indefinitely.
• 27 April 2027: Date until which Foundation says it will keep its IPFS gateway running.