Nifty Gateway, one of the earliest and most prominent NFT marketplaces, announced it will shut down on February 23, 2026, citing sharply declining activity. The platform, founded in 2018 by twins Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster and acquired by Gemini in 2019, has entered withdrawal-only mode, advising users to move their assets before the deadline. At its peak in 2021, Nifty Gateway reported $300 million in gross merchandise value, boosted by a Sotheby's partnership for a $17 million NFT drop by the artist Pak. The closure follows the collapse of the NFT boom, with trading volumes plummeting and other platforms like Async Art, KnownOrigin, and MakersPlace already shuttered.
The shutdown of Nifty Gateway marks one of the last major casualties of the NFT market's dramatic rise and fall, underscoring the broader collapse of the digital art speculation frenzy. The closure comes alongside the cancellation of NFT Paris, Europe's largest Web3 conference, due to market conditions. This signals a definitive end to the NFT hype cycle that peaked in 2021, with major auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's also scaling back their digital art operations. The event highlights the volatility of crypto-based art markets and the challenges of sustaining digital art platforms beyond speculative bubbles.