Many domain investors acquired NFTs this year, which likely impacted the domain aftermarket.
2021 was the year of the non-fungible token (NFT).
NFTs have been around for a while but became insanely popular (and sometimes valuable) this year.
The biggest NFT story this year was Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a collection of 10,000 ape drawings. Domain investors were early and bold investors in BAYC. If you called someone crazy for buying one of these for $10,000 at the beginning of the year, consider that the current floor price is 59 ether. That’s over $200,000!
Many people have gotten rich off of NFTs over the past twelve months. (Some have also lost a bundle.) It has sucked a lot of attention away from domains.
In the early part of the year, it seemed like money destined for the domain aftermarket was diverted to buying apes and other NFTs. But as domain investors profited handsomely on their NFT investments, much of that money has moved back into domains.
It has also likely led to domainers holding out for more money on their domains, which has lifted the domain market. A domain investor sitting on a million in cash from NFTs can hold out for higher dollar on domain inquiries.
You don’t have to invest directly in NFTs to profit from it, either. Companies in the space are paying lots of money for domain names. Here are the top public sales including NFT this year, according to NameBio.
NFT.com $2,000,000
NFTchain.com $88,000
NFT3.com $50,000
NFT.app $50,000
PlanetNFT.com $49,999
MusicNFTs.com $44,000
MetaNFTs.io $30,000
NFTbay.com $30,000
NFTdex.com $25,000
BestNFT.com $14,648
Words containing other crypto and blockchain terms also did well this year, such as domains with eth, dao, and defi. Related companies also bought generic domains.
Another story this year was OpenSea.com. OpenSea.com went on the auction block at Sedo with a reserve of over $500,000. The popular NFT marketplace OpenSea uses OpenSea.io. While the domain didn’t sell during the auction, it’s possible that OpenSea bought it afterward.
