Nifty Gateway Launches NFT Advisory Program for Institutions, Larger Collectors

Blockworks Exclusive: The NFT marketplace will offer its services to clients ranging from museums and family offices to large corporations, brands and more

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • “As institutional players [and] high-net-worth individuals get interested in the [NFT] market, they’re going to need people who can give them quality advice,” said Co-founder Duncan Cock Foster
  • Nifty Gateway will advise clients on matters including onboarding, private sales, off-market acquisitions, collection development and market intelligence

Museums, funds, family offices, corporations and large brands now all have something in common: the option to join Nifty Gateway’s NFT Advisory Program. 

The NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace is launching a new service for institutional clients — those of which are seeking guidance about their collectible crypto investments.

“As institutional players [and] high-net-worth individuals get interested in the market, they’re going to need people who can give them quality advice,” Duncan Cock Foster, co-founder of Nifty Gateway, told Blockworks.

The program will help clients with onboarding, private sales, off-market acquisitions, market intelligence and insights, along with global support. As of now, it is free of charge.

“If you look at the way that the traditional art market developed, it’s always been a market that’s difficult for people to understand,” Cock Foster said. “There’s a number of different prominent art advisors for the traditional [art] world, so I think that this is an inevitable aspect of NFT development.”

Nifty Gateway, which was co-founded by twin brothers Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, was acquired by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini in November 2019.

The marketplace distinguishes itself from competitors OpenSea and LooksRare because Nifty users have the option to purchase their digital collectibles in US dollars instead of solely cryptocurrencies like ether.

“We believe that both real-world and digital collectibles will migrate onto blockchains in the form of [NFTs],” Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, said in a statement about the acquisition.

Tara Harris, the director of collector services at Nifty Gateway, said that the company also has “a very aggressive hiring plan” to expand its NFT advisory board.

The program, however, isn’t “necessarily an exclusive club” or a “gated community,” Harris said. Rather, the new service is intended to further Nifty Gateway’s mission of onboarding 1 billion people into the nascent NFT space.

“This really is our way of bringing in bigger players to continue to drive growth and access in this marketplace and to scale out that access to more and more people through institutional players,” Harris added. “We’re really here to provide thoughtful access and a starting point for people.”

Nifty Gateway’s news closely follows Mastercard’s Feb. 15 announcement, when the financial services company said it would expand its consulting efforts to “NFT strategy development” for clients.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Maple Finance has successfully navigated significant market challenges through its strategic pivot to secured lending (Maple v2) and the launch of its Syrup product. Syrup has become a primary growth driver, delivering sustainable, outperforming stablecoin yields and rapidly increasing TVL. The upcoming custody-first Bitcoin staking product (istBTC) presents another significant avenue for expansion. Crucially, Maple has achieved operational profitability, a key inflection point that, combined with a fully vested token and active buyback mechanism, strengthens its investment case. While valuation metrics suggest potential undervaluation relative to peers and growth, the primary forward-looking risk identified is the long-term sustainability of its current high-take-rate collateral staking revenue model.

article-image

In 2014, Microsoft virus scanners were detecting viruses in Bitcoin software

article-image

Ledn’s Mauricio Di Bartolomeo explained how this cycle’s been different for the lender

article-image

The shorts looking for funding range from charming animated series to gritty live-action dramas

article-image

Money, it turns out, is emergent, like consciousness

article-image

Bridge flows churn in both directions as risk appetite returns

article-image

Even with an uncertain outlook thanks to tariffs, Big Tech executives are still ramping up their AI investments