Nifty Gateway co-founders reveal why they are stepping down

The alpha

• Brothers and Nifty Gateway co-founders Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster announced they would step down from leadership roles at the company.
• The news comes after (but not in response to) Gemini, Nifty Gateway’s parent company, announcing it will cut 10 percent of its workforce.
• The Cock Foster brothers have no concrete plans for the future, but have expressed a desire to start a new company.
• In an exclusive conversation with nft now, Duncan Cock Foster spoke about his and his brother’s decision to leave the company.

Why it matters

Big changes are on the horizon for prominent NFT platform Nifty Gateway (NG). After years of managing the beloved marketplace and driving innovation at the forefront of the NFT space, co-founders Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster announced they would resign from their management positions in the company.

Ownership is now with parent company Gemini’s co-founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The leadership torch has been passed to Eddie Ma (Tech Leader) and Tara Harris (Non-Tech Leader).

Many were surprised by the announcement, speculating whether the move had to do with the state of the crypto and tech industry or even Gemini itself, which has experienced difficulties in response to a situation with lending partner Genesis Global Capital. However, Duncan says this is not the case and that his and his brother’s decision was not a weakness for Gemini in any way.

“There’s no denying that the crypto and NFT markets are going through a turbulent time right now, and Gemini is no exception. But betting against the Winklevoss twins is a terrible idea,” Duncan said in an interview with nft now. is among the top 0.01 percent of the world’s most determined people, and I’m sure Gemini will come out of this crypto winter stronger than ever before. Our decision to leave was due to the fact that we are entrepreneurs at heart and we want to get back to entrepreneurship.”

As previously stated, the primary factor behind Cock Foster’s decision to leave was simply that their time was up. In his Twitter thread, Duncan said that when Nifty Gateway was originally acquired, he and his brother gave themselves a threshold of four years before they would inevitably leave to start another company – regardless of how good or bad things were going at the time .

“As founders, we knew we always wanted to start another company at some point,” Duncan said. “I love the team at Gemini and the Gemini mission, but being the founder of a company is a very different thing than running a division of a larger company, even if said larger company is one you love and respect. Ultimately was what guided our decision more than anything else.”

What will be next

According to Duncan’s thread, this transition has been in the works for several months. And to ease the potential concerns of those in the NG community, he stated that he and his brother would publicly outline a road map and plan for the future in the coming weeks. Personally, though, the Cock Foster brothers don’t know where they’re headed next.

“When we said we have no concrete plans for the future, we meant it. We have worked in the crypto sector for a long time and it is the industry we know best, so it is likely that the next company we start will also be in the crypto sector, said Duncan. “We don’t really know for sure, and our only immediate plan is to get back to fixing and exploring. The Winklevoss twins have told us they’ll write a check for anything [our future company] is, so we’re sure about that part.”

While Duncan added that his only focus at the moment is learning to surf, he also pointed out that he and his brother will eventually be back. They both remain highly optimistic about the long-term viability of the NFT ecosystem.

“When Griffin and I reflect on the ecosystem now compared to the ecosystem in 2018 when we first got involved, it’s amazing how much progress has been made. Back then, only a handful of creators were able to make meaningful money selling NFTs – now thousands (and maybe even tens of thousands) of creators are able to do so,” he said. “I certainly think the road to NFTs being a mainstream technology that most people use every day is longer and more winding than we originally thought, but we believe, and always have, that’s where the industry is headed. “

But wait, there’s more!