During the last several months, I’ve noticed quite a few “coin” domain names selling at various aftermarket venues like Sedo, GoDaddy, Afternic, and NameJet. Most of the names that appear to be selling seem to be of the brandable variety rather than exact match keyword domains. I think a big reason for this is that most of the primary keyword .com names are already owned by end users.
The reason that the best exact match keyword domain names are owned by end users already is likely because Bitcoin and other crypto coin currencies have become popular during the last few years, and the domain names weren’t picked up by many speculators. In addition, because of the growth trajectory of Bitcoin, major players in the space had more money to spend to acquire aftermarket coin domain names (see BitcoinWallet.com and Bitcoins.com links below for more details about those domain names).
Some examples of exact match Bitcoin and other coin related domain names that are (or appear to be) owned by end users are listed below. Many of these domain names are already developed or are pending development:
Some examples of brandable coin domain sales that have recently sold via aftermarket domain sales venues include the domain names listed below. I don’t know if these were speculative investments made by domain investing companies or if they were purchased by end user buyers seeking to build a brand:
- CoinShield.com (NameJet)
- CoinEscrow.com (GoDaddy)
- BitcoinLive.com (NameJet)
- Bitcoin2014.com (Sedo)
- CoinCard.com (NameJet)
- HappyCoins.com (Afternic)
- CoinTraders.com (Afternic)
One reason we are seeing names with the “Bitcoin” term selling is because I don’t believe there is a trademark that would allow one company or individual to use the Bitcoin keyword exclusively. Despite the Bitcoin “brand,” I don’t think there is a real trademarked brand that would prevent others from buying and using Bitcoin within their domain names.
I believe we will continue to see coin related domain names selling in the aftermarket. It will be interesting to see if sales for some of the highest value “coin” domain names, like Coins.com, Coin.com…etc. These domain names were probably originally destined for websites related to the hard currencies, but perhaps that will change.
