There has been quite a bit of activity in the domain name resale market related to Bitcoin domain names. Because of that, I have been tracking some of the better Bitcoin domain names, and I learned that BTC.com changed hands recently.
The Whois registrant information is now set to privacy at Fabulous (domain name registrar), and a message on the landing page says “Something amazing is coming soon. If you would like to be notified when it launches, please submit your email below.” Previously, the domain name was registered to a Japanese entity that did not shield its registrant information, and there was an active website on the domain name.
I reached out to the registrant via the privacy email address to ask about the domain name, and I actually know the registrant personally. He asked that I keep his name and company information private, and he mentioned that more information about BTC.com will be made public in the near future.
“BTC” is widely recognized as an abbreviation for Bitcoin, and my guess is that BTC.com will be used in a way that is related to Bitcoins. There are a number of Bitcoin related websites that use BTC in their domain names, and BTC seems to be a symbol to track the value of Bitcoin. In February, Bitcoin Shop, Inc. announced that it acquired the BTCS.com domain name.
The BTC.com landing page message does not give away how this domain name will be used, but there is a field that can be used to sign up for a notification when a website launches.
Considering Bitcoin has been around for quite some time and there has been movement on many bitcoin related domain names (news articles: Bitcoins.com, Bitcoin.com, and BitcoinWallet.com as examples), I can only guess the former owner passed on many offers until a great one came around. I think this is obviously a 6 figure domain name, but out of respect for the registrant, I won’t speculate on how much I think was paid to acquire this gem.
Once more information about BTC.com becomes available, I will share it with you.
Very interesting!
Picked up a bitcoin domain myself recently. Maybe not quite of the same calibre but certainly related to a bitcoin service that is has had a lot of press lately. Hoping to liquidate it in the coming weeks.
Care to share?
Not really, but only for fear of harming negotiations.
If I am able to sell I’ll make sure it’s published via DNJournal etc.
I own QBit,com and entertain offers on it. Qbit is more known for a quantum bit, but can be used as Quick Bit, Quality Bit and the like…
Very nice/good name, a gem to the one that want to enter in the bitcoin industry by the big door.
It look likes when you enter your email to know when the site will launch you discover who is behind. And yes, they are well known faces of the domaining landscape.
As Francois pointed out, they actually are popular names in the industry.
Hmm, perhaps new “.btc” on the horizon…
Already is a .bit, lookup namecoin.
I own bitcoin.com.bit 🙂
Did not know that, though I would still say it should be .btc rather than .bit. “Bit” is ambiguous, but of course “BTC” is well known and explicit. Could probably help the Bitcoin cause. All things considered “bit” is not bad, however, but btc would be better imo.
I say neither. There is a strong movement among some of the larger more established companies to start using Bitcoin’s proper World Currency Code – XBT. This gives bitcoin financial institutions more legitimacy when entering established financial markets. Hope the purchasers of this domain have considered this and planned accordingly.