It launched on September 10, 2018, to provide long-form, in-depth coverage of news from all around Colorado.

[2] It was started with two years of funding from blockchain venture capitalists at Civil and from a Kickstarter campaign.

The Colorado Sun was initially started with a combination of financial and technical support from Civil,[8] a blockchain platform for news organizations to independently found and run newsrooms,[9] and from a Kickstarter campaign that more than doubled its initial goals.

[10] The newspaper accepts advertising, and is supported through a combination of memberships, sponsorships, grants and donations.

[11][12] In November 2023, The Colorado Sun announced it would donate its ownership shares of those papers to The Trust because it was in the process of converting from a for-profit public benefit corporation to a nonprofit.