What’s in a name? Well, there are millions of dollars in it!
Names are being sold for whopping figures providing a multi-million-dollar lifeline for speculators in the ongoing crypto market slump. Crypto domain names, equivalent to a custom car number plate, are a new breed of NFTs that owners can use to replace the jumble of 16 random numbers and letters that form their digital wallet addresses.
Name enthusiasts believe crypto names could become valuable real estate in the near future with the advent of Web3 which would be entirely built on blockchain. The trading market for these alternative assets may seem rich and risky for investors scooping up buzzy domains. These investors want to flip their pickings for a profit in the secondary market on NFT platforms like OpenSea.
Matthew Gould, CEO of Unstoppable Domains, has domain names starting at as little as $5. He highlighted that some names ending in .crypto, .nft and .wallet sell for as much as $100,000. Gould explained that there is a definite perceived value difference between different words and lengths. Unstoppable Domains has recorded some bumper deals, such as its wallet.crypto sold for $250,000 and earn.crypto went out for $100,000.
The .eth names, generated by Ethereum Name Service (ENS), emerged as the fourth-most traded type of NFT on OpenSea in September. Total volumes rose 75% from a month ago to the equivalent of $12.5 million. Moreover, monthly registrations for .eth domain names surged to over 433,000 in September – the highest in the past 12 months, and a 5,000% spike from a year ago.
