Nifty Gateway

Last updated
Nifty Gateway
Founded2018
FounderDuncan and Griffin Cock Foster
Area served
Internet, Worldwide
Key people
Products NFT marketplace
Owner Winklevoss twins
Parent Gemini [1]
Website niftygateway.com

Nifty Gateway is a digital art online auction platform for non-fungible token (NFT) art founded by Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, [2] and has since been acquired by the Winklevoss twins. [3] Nifty Gateway has sold NFTs by Beeple, Pak, Refik Anadol, Sam Spratt, XCOPY, Skygolpe and other widely followed NFT artists. [3] [4]

Contents

History

Nifty Gateway was founded by Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster in November 2018 as a platform to buy NFTs. In the summer of 2019, it was acquired by the Winklevoss twins and became an auction platform. [3] [2] The company has partnered with Christie's for their first NFT auction [3] and Sotheby's. [5]

In March 2021, some users of the platform were hacked. A common theme across all the users that were hacked was that they all did not have 2-factor authentication activated. It is speculated that the hack was a result of cracking or otherwise acquiring their individual passwords. Nifty Gateway released a statement saying its initial investigation had found “no evidence” the platform itself was breached. [4] Nifty Gateway was able to reverse all transactions made via stolen credit card information, although it raised questions regarding new users understanding of cryptocurrency's decentralization. [6]

One user planned to file a police report and contact their insurance company, but did not, stating “there’s nothing I can do per the Nifty terms of service.” [6] [7]

In 2021, Amir Soleymani sued Nifty Gateway over an auction for a Beeple artwork titled "Abundance." Soleymani had bid on the artwork but was ultimately outbid. The auction was a ranked auction, a format Soleymani claims he had not encountered before. He was expected to pay $650,000 for a lower-valued edition of the work, which led to a series of legal disputes. Soleymani filed a suit in the U.K. High Court, questioning the fairness and enforceability of Nifty Gateway's terms. Described by The Daily Telegraph as having "huge repercussions for the UK consumer", the UK's Competition and Markets Authority joined Soleymani in the lawsuit. [8] The case has also seen a countersuit filed in New York. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital art</span> Collective term for art that is generated digitally with a computer

Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sotheby's</span> International auction house

Sotheby's is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and maintains a significant presence in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certificate of authenticity</span> Seal placed on objects (physical or digital) to show they are genuine

A certificate of authenticity (COA) is a seal or small sticker on a proprietary computer program, t-shirt, jersey, or any other memorabilia or art work, especially in the world of computers and sports. It is commonly a seal on paper authenticating a specific art work which and is made to demonstrate that the item is authentic.

Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) is an American cryptocurrency exchange and custodian bank. It was founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WhIsBe</span> American Street Artist

WhIsBe is a New York City-based street artist of unverified identity known both for his street and fine art. His work included in several museum collections and public installation spaces, including: The New Museum in New York, MOCO Museum in Amsterdam and real estate developer Larry Silverstein's rebuilt World Trade Center complex. In 2014, WhIsBe's work was included in the Governors Ball Music Festival on Randall's Island and in 2017, he installed a 7-foot sculpture in the lobby of the 4 World Trade Center building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-fungible token</span> Unique and non-interchangeable data

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. NFTs can be created by anybody and require few or no coding skills to create. NFTs typically contain references to digital files such as artworks, photos, videos, and audio. Because NFTs are uniquely identifiable, they differ from cryptocurrencies, which are fungible.

Adam Lindemann is a New York Based gallerist, art collector and writer who founded Venus Over Manhattan gallery in New York City in 2012. As an art collector and gallerist, Lindemann is known for setting multiple world records both at auction and privately, including career records for Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jean Royère.

Trevor Andrew is a Canadian snowboarder, musician and artist. He competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics. After an injury in 2005 he turned his attention to music, signing with Virgin Records and re-releasing his first album "Trouble Andrew" in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dangiuz</span> Contemporary Italian artist

Leopoldo D'Angelo, better known by the pseudonym "Dangiuz" is an Italian contemporary visual artist, digital artist and art director specializing in sci-fi themes. His work has been featured in art networks, books, TV channels and magazines such as RAI, Arte, Wallpaper*, NVIDIA Studio Standouts, Juxtapoz Magazine, Sohu, Pixiv and Digital Production, and showcased in various museums and galleries worldwide. He also took part in the creation of Rui Hachimura's Cherry Blossom kimono design and Maserati's MC20 concept art.

<i>CryptoPunks</i> Pioneering non-fungible token on Ethereum

CryptoPunks is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was launched in June 2017 by the Larva Labs studio, a two-person team consisting of Canadian software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. The experimental project was inspired by the London punk scenes, the cyberpunk movement, and electronic music artists Daft Punk. The crypto art blockchain project was an inspiration for the ERC-721 standard for NFTs and the modern crypto art movement, which has since become a part of the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance ecosystems on multiple blockchains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Winkelmann</span> American digital artist

Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator known for selling NFTs. In his art, he uses various media to create comical, phantasmagoric works that make political and social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. British auction house Christie's has called him "A visionary digital artist at the forefront of NFTs". Beeple was introduced to NFTs in October 2020 and credits Pak for providing his first "primer" on selling NFTs. The NFT associated with Everydays: the First 5000 Days, a collage of images from his "Everydays" series, was sold on March 12, 2021, for $69 million in cryptocurrency to an investor in NFTs. It is the first purely non-fungible token to be sold by Christie's. The auction house had previously sold Block 21, an NFT with accompanying physical painting for approximately $130,000 in October 2020.

<i>Everydays: the First 5000 Days</i> Digital work of art by Mike Winkelmann

Everydays: the First 5000 Days is a digital work of art created by Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple. The work is a collage of 5000 digital images created by Winkelmann for his Everydays series. Its associated non-fungible token (NFT) was sold for $69.3 million at Christie's in 2021, making it the most expensive non-fungible token ever.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osinachi (digital artist)</span> Nigerian Digital Artist

Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe, commonly known as Osinachi, is a Nigerian visual and digital artist. He is known for using Microsoft Word as his medium. Described as "Africa's foremost crypto artist," Osinachi is regarded as the first African artist to have his work digitally auctioned as an NFT by Christie's in Europe."

A rare Pepe or RarePepe is a variation on the "Pepe the Frog" internet meme, itself based on a character created by Matt Furie. The related Rare Pepe crypto project, created by various artists worldwide between 2016 and 2018, was based on the aforementioned meme and traded as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) recorded on the CounterParty platform. A total of 1,774 official cards were released for the project across 36 series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pak (creator)</span> Digital artist

Pak, formerly known as Murat Pak, is a digital artist, cryptocurrency investor, and programmer. Pak is known for creating the curation platform Archillect, an internet bot which reshares media based on user interactions with content hosted on various social platforms and for launching a platform for burning NFTs to receive tokens of the cryptocurrency Ash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Wikipedia edit</span> First Wikipedia edit on its homepage in 2001

The first edit in Wikipedia's database, to HomePage was made on January 15, 2001, and states in its entirety "This is the new WikiPedia!". In December 2021, co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that he would sell a website containing a re-creation of an earlier edit that he said he made and then later deleted, which contained the text "Hello, World!", to the highest bidder as a non-fungible token (NFT).

XCOPY is an anonymous, London-based digital artist active in the field of NFT art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Bonaceto</span> Italian digital artist

Andrea Bonaceto is an Italian digital artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FEWOCiOUS</span> American digital artist, painter, and sculptor

Victor Langlois, known professionally as FEWOCiOUS, is an American digital artist, painter, and sculptor known for his NFT artwork.

References

  1. ↑ "Gemini Acquires Nifty Gateway" (Press release). November 19, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "The Twin Blockchain Entrepreneurs Who Dream of "Digital Air Jordans"". New York Magazine. March 4, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 del Castillo, Michael; Adams, Susan; Gara, Antoine (2021-04-05). "Revenge Of The Winklevii". Forbes .
  4. 1 2 "The Gray Market: Why the Hack of Nifty Gateway Raises Far-Reaching Questions About the Entire NFT Market (and Other Insights)". Artnet News. March 22, 2021.
  5. ↑ Villa, Angelica (April 6, 2021). "In a First, Sotheby's Collaborates with Major NFT Player for Pak Sale".
  6. 1 2 "Lessons From the Nifty Gateway NFT Heist: Not Your Keys, Not Your Art". Yahoo! Finance. March 17, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Nifty Gateway NFT Marketplace Review | The Ascent by Motley Fool". The Motley Fool. 2022-06-22. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  8. ↑ Mendick, Robert (2022-11-12). "Liverpool art dealer's David and Goliath fight with US billionaire twins to win his money back". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2024-02-12.
  9. ↑ "NFT Platform Nifty Gateway, Collector Caught in Legal Battle over Beeple Auction". 4 October 2021.
  10. ↑ "An Irate Collector is Suing the NFT Platform Nifty Gateway over the Terms of a Very Weird Beeple Auction". 4 October 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.