Foundation Review: What Should NFT Holders Do Now?

Foundation was an art-focused NFT marketplace built around Ethereum and onchain ownership. You can no longer use its platform to browse, buy, sell, mint or manage NFTs: it is offline indefinitely, and its team has decided not to restart operations. The smart contracts continue to exist onchain, so existing assets do not depend on the Foundation website to remain in your wallet.

That distinction matters if you already own or created NFTs through Foundation. The marketplace interface is gone, but the contracts and wallet-held tokens remain. Foundation says some other platforms can import creator contracts, although you should confirm what a destination platform supports before relying on it. For anyone choosing a marketplace today, Foundation is not an active option.

You cannot make a new purchase or listing through Foundation while its platform is offline. The project has not published current marketplace fees, and there is no active Foundation interface through which to check or pay them. If you interact directly with an Ethereum contract to manage an existing NFT, the transaction may require Ethereum network gas; the amount varies with network conditions and the action.

Treat any community tool or alternative marketplace as a separate service, not a Foundation product. Check its own fees and terms before using it, and inspect the transaction in your wallet before signing. Avoid assuming that an old Foundation fee schedule, interface, or listing flow still applies. If you are only reviewing an NFT in your wallet, do not sign a transaction just to check its status.

Foundation describes its system as non-custodial: NFTs remain in your wallet, and the smart contracts continue to exist onchain independently of the website. That reduces the risk of losing the token merely because the company’s interface is offline. It does not guarantee access to the NFT's image, metadata, or marketplace functions.

Foundation has announced that it will not resume operations and says its team is no longer in place to support the service. It has committed to maintaining its IPFS gateway through April 27, 2027, and to giving technical guidance to developers working with its infrastructure. The project does not publish an audit in the listed project details, so do not treat the continuing existence of a contract as proof that every contract interaction is risk-free. Check contract addresses and transaction permissions independently before signing.

There is no Foundation marketplace workflow to sign up for or use now. If you have an existing NFT, check its ownership and any active listing from your wallet and a trusted Ethereum block explorer. Foundation says NFTs listed through its contracts need to be delisted manually; its former interface is not available for that task.

Community members have built tools for delisting directly from Foundation contracts and for locating or pinning artwork and metadata. These tools are independent of Foundation, so verify who maintains them and what transaction they request. Review the destination address, permissions and gas before signing, and never share your seed phrase. A transaction that changes a listing or grants permissions should be treated as a real onchain action, not a routine login. If uncertain, ask a knowledgeable developer to review the contract interaction before proceeding.

A token and its media are separate: the NFT can remain in your wallet even if its image or metadata becomes hard to retrieve. Foundation says content has been pinned, but cautions that long-term resilience depends on broader redundancy. Its IPFS gateway is planned to remain active through April 27, 2027, giving holders time to make independent copies or use community preservation efforts.

If the artwork matters to you, locate the NFT's metadata and content identifiers, then preserve the media and metadata through a method you trust. Do not rely on the Foundation gateway as permanent storage, and verify that any copy is complete and readable. Community projects have been announced to mirror and pin content, but they are independent services with their own maintenance and availability risks. Keep a record of the NFT's contract and token ID alongside preserved files.