Non-Domain Related

HomeTown Bank is a bank in Minnesota I wasn’t familiar with until this morning. The bank, which I would guess is one of many unrelated banks branded as Hometown Bank, has been using HTBMN.com for its website. The HTB in its domain name stands for HomeTown Bank and the MN in its domain name is the two letter abbreviation for the state of Minnesota.

In a crowded brand-space, the bank likely chose this acronym domain name because it was the shortest and easiest domain name to remember that was available. Better domain names such as the ones below are owned by others:

• Hometown.com – listed for sale on Evergreen.com
• HometownBank.com – forwards to a different bank website
• HTB.com – Owned by HomeTrust Bank

This week, the brand announced it was updating its website and using a new domain name. Instead of the HTBMN.com domain name, the bank is now using MYHT.Bank for its website. Including the extension, the bank went from an 8 letter domain name to another 8 letter domain name.

An NFT project called Paradise Trippies was recently launched using the Paradise.com domain name. Among the team members behind the project are longtime domain investors Andy Booth, Shane Cultra, and James Booth. In addition to the exceptional domain name, the project is also using the valuable @connect Twitter handle. There will be a total of 10,000 unique NFTs available.

Paradise Trippies began its private minting phase earlier in the week. From what I can tell on Twitter, there were quite a few opportunities for people to sign up for the opportunity to participate in the early minting phase. The public minting phase, which is open to everyone else, begins today:

On August 5th, I wrote about a domain investor who spent more than $500,000 purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club ape NFT. At the time, the price to buy the NFT was 199 ETH. Since then, other BAYC apes have sold for more, including a $1.3 million purchase by Andy Booth and James Booth.

BAYC NFTs have had an incredible run, and while I don’t participate in the NFT market, I think this particular set of NFTs is more liquid than most domain names right now.

When I wrote about the $500,000 BAYC purchase, there were many comments from domain investors. While many domain investors have not bought or sold NFTs, there aren’t many domain investors who do not have an opinion on the topic!

To close the loop on the $500k BAYC ape purchase, it looks like this NFT was just sold for 600 ETH via OpenSea:

Teaching has to be one of the most challenging professions, particularly as Covid poses unique set of classroom issues. School is starting soon or has already started for millions of children, and many teachers can use a hand purchasing school supplies for their students and classrooms.

Domain investor Jason Sheppard shared the tweet below from someone looking to help teachers purchase the classroom supplies they need for this school year:

Nearly a week ago, I published an article about a domain investor spending more than $500,000 USD worth of ETH on a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ape NFT. This afternoon, Andy Booth announced that he and his brother, James Booth, paid 400 ETH for a different BAYC NFT. This one is golden with red laser eyes and a boat captain’s hat.

Lost our ape brains? I don’t think so. Pleasure to own the number 1 ape in the club. with @domain https://t.co/W0exfo52Y5

— Andy Booth (@360) August 11, 2021

The Wrap posted a humorous video with John Oliver, and there’s some domain name humor involved. In the video, John Oliver discusses the Sackler family and the opioid epidemic.

Domain branding wisdom from @iamjohnoliver as he trolls the Sackler family by buying the matching .com to their .info fluff site, that they were too cheap to spend $2500 to acquire. "What kind of f—ing idiot would set up an important website and not buy the .com?” https://t.co/IpnVpCxqSQ

— Nat Cohen (@domainarts) August 9, 2021