Dropping BTC Price Not a Good Excuse to Default

After a short negotiation on Dan.com last week, I agreed to sell a domain name for six figures. It’s a domain name I had discussed with this prospective buyer before, and he accepted a counteroffer I made on May 4th. I was hoping to close the deal promptly to fund a couple of other purchases I have in the works, but it has not yet closed.

My Account Manager at Dan.com has been keeping me apprised of the transaction status. It appears this deal may not close. The buyer wants to pay for the domain name with Bitcoin, which can be done via Dan.com. Unfortunately, the price of Bitcoin has taken a hit over the last several days. Around the time of the sale, Bitcoin was hovering just shy of $40,000/coin. The price of BTC is now around $33,000/coin. I am told the buyer indicated he can no longer pay for the domain name due to the dropping price of BTC.

In my opinion, the lower value of BTC is not an acceptable reason to default on a deal.

Bitcoin is a speculative investment. For the last few years, the price of BTC has bounced around quite a bit. The price is well-off all time highs, but it is still quite a bit higher than it was a few years ago. The price fluctuations seems to be a feature for traders, and someone with experience trading would know and understand this.

If I agreed to buy a domain name and planned to fund the deal by selling stock, I might be hurting because the stock markets have fallen this past week and appear to be on the same track as we start this week. I would not try to back out of a deal I agreed to because the value of my stock portfolio fell.

If this deal gets canceled due to non-payment, the price of the domain name will revert back to where it was. If the price of BTC increases and the buyer wants the domain name in the future, it will cost more (if buyer isn’t banned from Dan due to defaulting). On the other hand, if BTC continues to drop in value, paying for the domain name now will limit some of the loss.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

16 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds like a breach of contract to me.
    Another reason Bitcoin is associated with dark money and underworld activities.

    Cash > volatile crypto

  2. Probably what’s really going on is the party has the Bitcoin to do it, but just doesn’t want to spend more of it while it’s down. The person is making a mistake if so. The grandiose arguments about the future of Bitcoin are a fantasy. The arguments about being beyond government control are also a fantasy.

    • I don’t see a scenario where governments would give up the monopoly power of controlling the worlds currency. If anything, global governments will create their own version to give them more control over our lives.

      Bitcoin is a highly volatile speculative instrument at best.

      Moreover, the arguments hyped about it being a ‘hedge against’ inflation have be proven to be mere delusions.

  3. I only get paid in USD AKA UNITED STATES ‘DOLLAR,no EXCEPTIONS.
    not in rubble
    What don’t you understand!!!

    Bitcoin eth are all scams,illegal transactions.

    • I do not believe most marketplaces or platforms give the seller the choice about the currency or payment method the buyer chooses to use. In almost all cases, the payment method and payment currency is not shared with the seller.

  4. you reached a transaction agreement in usd not btc – i assume – so that’s the price. of course you, the buyer, and dan know this. good domains are going up in value. so if this deal doesn’t close, at least you’ll keep an appreciating asset.

    btc and eth should rise again, and digital currency will become even more the norm; however, i believe GOVCRYPTO will become the defacto digital currency and values will be based on multiple data sets – similar to currency trading

  5. It’s an agreement and buyer needs to pay .So what will Dan do to buyer?Nothing ?I am sure you cant do anything but to let buyer be or do you plan to tell Dan to take action?

    • Unsure what Dan will do but I will let them do it.

      The trouble is that my company, Dan.com, and the buyer are in 3 different jurisdictions. Any legal action would be costly and take a considerable amount of time.

  6. Crypto buyers are always overpaying for domains.
    So be glad that you were about to get 6 figures for your domain. People with usd are not going to pay you as high as crypto buyers.
    You also have to understand the buyers side of the story. Bitcoin went down from $40k to $30k so he might have changed his plans on buying that domain cause it probably don’t make sense to him anymore to over pay.
    Bitcoin is not usually this volatile but lately it has been extra volatile so you have to understand his side of the story.
    I would tell him to keep the domain in escrow and wait it out until bitcoin price comes back up and he feels comfortable to close the deal.
    I really doubt you are going to get a higher offer than your crypto buyers offer.
    Stay calm and don’t let this buyer get away.
    Don’t get me wrong, i understand that he is wrong for not closing the deal as promised but you have to understand..shittt happens…situations change.

  7. Sorry to hear it. I can imagine the great emotion that comes with losing such a deal as you would have been hyped up about other opportunities that this could give you. 🙁

  8. Yes, not having a 6 figure deal close due to the btc slide would be frustrating.

    hope you can still close this, elliot.

    i had a transaction finally close on dan after the agreement for paying had passed the required date.but this was only a 5 figure deal.

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