The digital art community was jolted early this morning after the prominent Ethereum-based NFT platform Foundation halted its operation.
This was due to the reversal of its recent acquisition by digital art gallery company Blackdove.
Backing out
Blackdove executive Marc Billings announced the difficult decision to "pause our ongoing support of the Foundation platform" and return management to Foundation's original founder, Kayvon Tehranian, for an orderly transition.
According to Billings, Blackdove initially intended to acquire Foundation to integrate asset tokenization into its existing software infrastructure. This would make it possible for clients to browse, purchase, and display digital art.
However, full due diligence was only completed after the operational handover since the nature of the deal was rather fast-paced. During this phase, Blackdove ultimately concluded that building its own proprietary marketplace was the more viable path forward.
Billings stressed that the decision had "no correlation to the demand for digital art," noting that Blackdove's physical digital art installations are actually up 40% year-over-year.
The downfall of the NFT industry
Approximately 96% of all NFT collections are now considered "dead," characterized by zero trading activity or meaningful community engagement.
Total market capitalization for NFTs experienced a massive 72% collapse throughout 2025.
It is worth noting that bad taking investor funds and abandoning projects has severely eroded public.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
