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NFT projects are leasing valuable .com domains

by — Domain Sales 4 Comments

At least two NFT projects are leasing great domains.

Image of digital artwork with NFT letters standing for non-fungible token

Despite being an initialism, NFT was recently chosen as Collins Dictionary’s word of the year, beating crypto to the top spot.

The term, short for non-fungible tokens, has rightly been recognized in a year where NFTs have become one of the breakout stars of the digital age. Bored Apes and Crypto Punks are now highly desirable assets that have netted some investors millions of dollars.

Motivated by the popularity and money-making potential, thousands of entrepreneurs and artists are creating new NFT projects. However, it’s often difficult for the creators to gain traction or stand out from the crowd when hundreds of new projects are vying for attention each week.

Alongside traditional NFT marketing methods, some projects are turning to premium domains to catch the eye by offering an air of exclusivity and permanence, using domain leasing to secure the right name.

A good domain name might not be the first thing you think of concerning an NFT project, but the project’s website is one of the first interaction points for many potential NFT buyers. Coupled with the fact that NFT minting usually takes place on the NFT’s official website, a domain becomes a much more important consideration.

I’ve noticed two NFT projects that have recently struck deals with Venture.com, a domain name marketplace that doesn’t sell domain names. Rather, Venture.com offers domain names for lease.

The first project is Sherbet, which brands itself as offering a “ticket to the world’s first social Web3 casino.” Sherbet has attracted over 23,000 Discord members and a Twitter following of over 8,000, but the project is notable for operating on Sherbet.com, a one-word domain originally registered in 1996.

WHOIS history shows that Sherbet began leasing Sherbet.com around mid-July 2021, just before the project launched. An Archive.org version of Sherbet.com from January 2021 suggests the domain was available to lease for $400 per month at that time.

Turtles, an NFT project on the Solana blockchain, has also leased a domain name from Venture.com. The collection of 3,333 pixelated turtles started operating on Turtles.com around the beginning of September 2021. Archive.org suggests the domain had a monthly lease price of $1,080 in April 2021.

Thousands of companies have discovered the benefits of upgrading to a premium .com domain name, is it now the turn of NFT projects? With the potential return on investment that an NFT project creator can make, basing that project around a premium domain name might make sense.

Proptech company Place joins the Unicorn club using Place.com

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

This unicorn has a great place on the web.

Logo for Place real estate company

For real estate agents and brokers, there are plenty of platforms and services available to help close more sales, generate leads, or just keep in contact with clients.

Funding has been thrown at proptech companies to keep creating. Crunchbase estimates that real estate companies raised $10.6 billion in venture funding between January and July 2021, up almost $2.3 billion from the same period in 2020.

Thanks to a hot real estate market that has seen more house sales in the US in 2020 than any year since 2006, demand for innovation is rife.

One proptech company that is benefiting from the upward trend of the real estate market is Place. Founded in 2019, this young company has already made major strides as a real estate service provider.

With a strapline reading “everyone needs a place,” Place offers a solution that allows real estate agents to take control of many aspects of their business including marketing, lead generation, accounting, and back-office infrastructure.

This somewhat bucks the trend of companies that are building products designed to eliminate the need for real estate agents.

There’s certainly a market for Place, though. The company has signed up tens of thousands of real estate professionals to its platform and this week, it announced that it has raised $100 million in funding.

The funding round, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, values Place at $1 billion, making it the latest member of the Unicorn club, a title given to a privately owned company that is valued at $1 billion or more.

At the heart of Place’s product offering is its website, and it’s hosted on a phenomenal domain name. Yes, Place is operating on Place.com.

The company started life on PlaceInc.com, but in December 2020, it began using Place.com.

Whois history suggests that Place used an Escrow.com domain holding transaction to acquire Place.com using a purchase plan. The registrant of Place.com has been listed as Escrow.com since December 2020.

It’s unclear how much Place is paying to acquire Place.com, but we do know that the domain previously traded for $550,000 in 2017. The sale was facilitated by Right Of The Dot and GoDaddy.

In Place’s case, its website plays a crucial role in the services it provides. Operating on Place.com gives the perfect first impression.

22 end user domain sales up to $47,000

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

A payments company, a workplace app, and an online course creator bought domain names.

Graphic with purple background and a dollar sign with the words "end user domain sales"

It’s interesting to see when a company swoops in and buys multiple related domains. With Sedo, this sometimes happens over weeks ormonths. But this week, one company bought four related domains on the marketplace.

Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo. You can view previous lists like this here.

Lendly.com $47,000 – This domain wasn’t in the weekly Sedo list, probably because it happened after the cutoff. Last month I wrote about lending company Lendly, LLC buying lend.ly for $4,500. The company was using getlendly.com.  At this point, I can’t definitively say that the same company bought the domain, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Interestingly, both lendly.com and lend.ly were used by the same company many years ago.

Crydo.com $15,000 – This is an interesting one. It appears the buyer picked it up as a typo of crypto or plans to rebrand one of its businesses. Graham Ventures, Inc. forwards the domain to its Fund.io domain, which it uses for a payment processing business.

EBGSolutions.com $15,000 – Whois shows the buyer is EBG in Florida. A building company in Florida uses the initialism EBG, but the buyer could be someone else.

FitForService.com $12,500 – Fit For Service appears to be some sort of self-improvement system or course. Here’s how it describes it: “Fit For Service is a curated fellowship with some of the world’s top coaches and experts, specifically designed to help you become physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, romantically and spiritually fit to be in service of the good of all. ”

ITservice.ch €10,000 and Notebook.ch EUR 8,000 – Commerce Schweiz gmbh is an IT consulting shop.

Kleiderschrank.online $8,500, Kleiderschränke.net €3,500, Kleiderschraenke.net €3,500, and Kleiderschrank.org €3,000 – This word is German for wardrobe. goodsforbusinss GmbH provides products such as mannequins, clothing racks, etc. to businesses.

SAgency.com $6,495 – Jenny Weaver Capital, an M&A advisory firm, bought this domain. I’m not sure what it’s for.

AveNew.com $5,000 – The Heritage Group is a trucking, environmental cleanup, and logistics firm. I’m not sure how it will use this domain.

SouthernPickers.com $5,000  – The buyer is associated with Moorefarms Of Skippers Llc, which appears to be an agricultural firm.

GetSona.com $5,000 – Sona is a workplace app for employees that don’t use a desk.

HypeFree.com $4,299 – Hype Free is an online course about crypto and Web3.

MedicalHealthNews .net $4,150  – This is a site about supplements.

ShopIsrael.com $3,500 – Shop Israel sells an eclectic mix of goods related to Israel.

On-Energy.com $3,247 – Solar Ruhr GmbH is a solar power company in Germany.

Parfait.ch €2,990  – This domain has a coming soon page with a logo for Parfait.

FindaTradie.com €2220  – Just Hospitality Group Ltd provides services to hospitality recruiting companies. Tradie is a term for tradespeople with specialized skills, such as plumbers and electricians.

Neuricity.com $2,199 – Cognitive Brain Imaging in Missouri bought this domain. Neur is probably short for neurology.

MarcelHess.com €2,000  – Marcell Hess is a corporate speaker.

Bird.com domain name sells

by — Domain Sales 5 Comments

Domain sells after auction sale fell through.

The word "Sold" in big letters in quote on red background

The valuable domain name bird.com has sold.

The seller confirmed the sale to Domain Name Wire today. Monte Cahn of Right of the Dot assisted on the sale. Neither would disclose details.

Earlier this year, it appeared the domain had sold for $2.5 million, but the bidder never paid. Now, Cahn has helped sell two of the three domains that didn’t end up completing in that auction. The other was Tattoo.com.

The Whois record doesn’t disclose much about the buyer. It only shows that the registrant country is the Netherlands.

Right now, the domain resolves to a landing page with bird.com on it and a background video of famous people.

The seller acquired bird.com for $200,000 in 2005 and used the site to sell pet bird supplies.

Hat tip: James Iles

Namecheap launches domain marketplace

by — Domain Sales 3 Comments

Marketplace includes “buy now” domains and auctions.

Illustration with four hands holding bidding cards that say "bid"

Namecheap announced the official launch of its new domain market today.

Inventory includes 300,000 domain auctions and millions of buy now listings, according to the company. Presumably, some of these listings are syndicated marketplace partnerships.

Namecheap recently pulled its expired domain inventory from GoDaddy Auctions. Now, domain investors will have another platform to watch as domains expire.

In a release, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall said, “When I started Namecheap way back in 2000, I truly believed that domain names were the digital real estate of the future, and I wanted to make the process of finding and buying them accessible and simple for everyone. Now more than two decades later, many domain names have indeed become valuable digital assets, and we are once again making the process of buying and selling those assets a seamless and easy process with the new Namecheap Market.”

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