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]
According to Nifty Gateway, it has paid out over $500 Million Dollars to artists,[6] and it hosted the Pak Merge art sale, in which a piece of art sold for $91.8 Million.[7]
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.[8]
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.”[8][9]
Dispute
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.[10] The case has also seen a countersuit filed in New York.[11][12]
