How Foundation empowers creatives to make money

As part of our series on creative businesses set up during the pandemic, we speak to Foundation, the auction platform for digital art and NFTs about how their digital-first approach is working for them

Foundation was founded as a platform to provide an alternative to traditional art auctions and the way work is bought and sold. Instead of physical auctions of pieces, it hosts live auctions of digital art and NFTs. Co-founded by Kayvon Tehranian and Matt Vernon, the concept aims to give more power to the artists and creatives making the work, while also tapping into the world of cryptocurrency to make it more accessible. 

The idea behind Foundation is to merge culture and crypto, and create mutual support between them,” says co-founder Vernon, who is also the platform’s head of design. “We had a vision for how powerful crypto could be in the hands of artists, and wanted to re-conceptualise what it means to value creative work.”

Foundation’s logo. All images: Foundation

Since launching in February 2021, a community of collectors and creators has been formed and the platform is open to anyone with a MetaMask wallet and some ETH cryptocurrency to get started. So far Foundation’s creators, who range from artists to designers, illustrators to digital activists, have earned 21,624 ETH overall, which equates to just over $53 million.