Falling Crypto Market is Bad for Domain Investors

Over the last two weeks, the value of cryptocurrency, NFTs, and associated investment values have taken a hit for a plethora of reasons. Bitcoin seems to have bounced back off of its lows, but it is still considerably lower than it has been trading of late. I have not participated in these markets, but I believe a falling crypto market is bad for domain investors and the domain name industry as a whole.

If you have a look at some of the top domain name sales from the last five years, you will see quite a few domain names were sold to cryptocurrency related companies or were bought for crypto/Web3 related projects. Even more high value domain names were acquired by these types of companies in private. Public.com, Crypto.com, Circle.com, Republic.com, Gemini.com, Candy.com, Galaxy.com, and countless other domain names were sold in private for substantial amounts of money.

I would guess nine figures worth of domain names have been sold to crypto-related businesses in the last several years. I would not be surprised to learn the number is actually higher. It is an impossible to know given the amount of sales transacted privately on platforms like GoDaddy, Dan.com, Sedo, BrandBucket, and others, in addition to privately transacted off-platform sales.

Companies flush with cash are willing and able to spend money on great domain names. High growth industries, like cryptocurrency and associated businesses, have received substantial funding to grow exponentially. They also earn considerable revenue from sales and services. Some of this money trickles down to domain industry companies and domain investors. As the crypto market goes, so goes the domain name aftermarket.

With a softening crypto market, less money will be spent on domain name registrations, acquisitions, and upgrades. Companies would be reluctant to lay off staff while spending a substantial amount of money on a domain name upgrade. People may be less inclined to start a business, particularly as interest rates increase and the amount of funding available dries up. In my view, this means there will be less money spent on domain names.

In addition to the falling crypto markets, many companies on the NYSE and NASDAQ have also taken some hits. Stocks have fallen off of their recent highs. I have also been reading about startup layoffs and difficulty with fundraising. These factors will also impact the domain name aftermarket.

It’s not all doom and gloom on the horizon. There will also be plenty of opportunities for domain investors that pop-up. Companies that don’t survive may have valuable domain names that could be sold. Projects may get abandoned and associated domain names may be put up for sale to raise capital. There may be less money spent on domain auctions, giving investors a better opportunity to acquire investment-grade domain names at a lower cost.

I am sure there are some people who are happy about crypto investors losing some of their investment. As a domain investor though, if the crypto markets continue to fall, I think the ripple effects on the domain name ecosysyem will be pretty strong.

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

6 COMMENTS

  1. Good points.

    Some companies will choose to buy a EMD dot-Com for their brand and opt to lay off staff.
    The right EMD dot-Com might replace the NEED for some employees, depending on the organic power of that domain.

    We see automation replacing human resources all the time now.

    For example, if a startup named Shark doesn’t own Shark(.)com, but can layoff 3 workers earning $150K annually ($450K) and can objectively replace their productivity with a one-time $250K URL purchase; some startups will choose the EMD.

  2. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist
    sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

    An opportunity to pick up good bargains

    It all all about emotional investing
    Downturn upturned downturn upturned
    Been there done that

  3. Thank God that I didn’t invest in .xyz names. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen to dot XYZ domains 🙂

  4. I’ll take a few years of soft sales to reload the portfolio. Prices on the aftermarkets have been dumb for a while now.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Last Call: 2025 Domain Industry PMC Jersey

0
Our customized domain industry Pan-Mass Challenge jersey raises a substantial amount of money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute each year. The company that produces the...

Details Behind $1 Million+ Deal for Diversification.com

1
Paul Rubillo shared some details about a deal he struck for the Diversification.com domain name. When the deal concludes, it will be valued at...

GoDaddy Auctions Expands AI Images and Descriptions

1
I recently noticed that GoDaddy Auctions began incorporating artificial intelligence-generated images and descriptions to its auction listings. This AI-generated content appears in the Details...

Atom to Launch Price Tracking Feature

0
I don't use Google Shopping for much beyond the native price tracking tool. If there's a product I want to buy but think it's...

Resolved: No Sound Notification for Email on iPhone 16

0
I've been dealing with a frustrating iPhone issue for a while. I don't recall when it started, but my sound notifications have not been...