Nifty Gateway announces closure in February! The former leader of the NFT wave is now coming to an end.

Nifty Gateway announces closure in February 2026 and enters withdrawal-only mode, symbolizing the end of the NFT platform era and the industry’s official shift towards a new application-driven phase.

From peak to exit, the veteran NFT platform officially enters the countdown

Once considered one of the representatives of the NFT wave, Nifty Gateway officially announced on Saturday (1/24) that the platform will cease all operations by February 23, 2026. The platform has already transitioned into “withdrawal-only” mode, where users can no longer trade or list works, and can only transfer NFTs, ETH, or USD assets out of their accounts before the deadline.

According to the official announcement, users can choose to transfer their assets to a Gemini exchange account or withdraw directly to their bank account via Stripe. The platform has also displayed a closure notice on the homepage and is gradually sending emails to remind users holding assets to complete the transfer process promptly to avoid processing risks after the deadline.

Image source: X/@niftygateway One of the representatives of the NFT wave, Nifty Gateway, officially announces that the platform will cease operations entirely on February 23, 2026

The starting point of buying NFTs with credit cards, once driving mainstream market explosion

Founded in 2020, Nifty Gateway is regarded as one of the important drivers of NFT entering the mainstream. Compared to many early native crypto platforms, Nifty Gateway was among the first to support credit card purchases of digital art, significantly lowering the barrier for ordinary consumers and bringing NFTs into mainstream cultural awareness as “digital collectibles” for the first time.

The platform is known for curated “limited edition sales,” collaborating with well-known artists and creators such as Beeple and Grimes. During the peak of the 2021 NFT craze, Nifty Gateway’s total transaction volume once exceeded $30 billion, making it one of the most iconic NFT marketplaces at the time. However, as market enthusiasm waned and trading volume rapidly shrank, the platform’s growth momentum also dissipated.

Gemini’s strategic shift, NFTs no longer the core battleground

Nifty Gateway was acquired by Gemini in 2019, marking the exchange’s official entry into the NFT industry. However, as the overall NFT market entered a prolonged downturn, Gemini has gradually adjusted its direction in recent years. In 2024, Nifty Gateway ceased traditional marketplace operations and transitioned to Nifty Gateway Studio, focusing on on-chain creation and brand collaborations, but ultimately failed to reverse the structural decline.

Gemini stated that closing Nifty Gateway helps reallocate resources, and future efforts will focus on building an integrated “crypto super app,” with continued support for NFT custody and display through the Gemini Wallet launched in 2025.

This also reflects how major exchanges’ positioning of NFTs has shifted from standalone platforms to auxiliary features, rather than core growth engines.

NFT market structure shift, platform era gradually phased out

The closure of Nifty Gateway is seen as a symbol of the official end of the “platform era” in NFTs. In recent years, leading marketplaces like OpenSea have also shifted towards aggregators or tokenization strategies, indicating that a single NFT marketplace can no longer replicate the explosive growth pattern of 2021.

Nevertheless, NFTs have not disappeared entirely. In early 2026, the overall NFT market cap briefly rebounded to about $3 billion, with market focus gradually shifting to “functional NFTs” with gaming, membership, or physical application features. Under this transformation, early platforms centered on art trading are gradually exiting, symbolizing the industry’s move from a period of frantic speculation to a more pragmatic, decentralized, and application-oriented new stage.