Here’s why decentralized domain names are unpopular among domain investors
Unlike .COM and ICANN accredited TLDs, decentralized domain names (blockchain domains) can’t reach general internet users since they are not accessible directly through browsers and even search engines don’t index them. .ETH, .CRYPTO, .NFT, .BITCOIN are top 4 alternative domain extensions registered by users around the world though they need special DNS setting changes to be made in your Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers to access them. Since launch of decentralized domain names popularly known as Web3 domains that are accessed via blockchain has started diminishing in popularity. Here’s the live stats uptil April, 2025 of the total sales of these blockchain domains.
Domain Extension | Total Sales (units) till date |
|---|---|
.ETH | 1200 |
.CRYPTO | 900 |
.ZIL | 450 |
.NFT | 150 |
.BITCOIN | 75 |
The average sale price of these decentralized domains are also quite lower than the traditional, generic gTDs like .com or .net domain names which has average sales value of $10000 or more. The .ETH domain average sale value in aftermarket was just $1500 while .BITCOIN has the lowest sale value of $300.
Adoption of Web3 domain names is quite low among the industry and investment potential is also less as it yeilds less income. Generic TLDs have mass-market appeal and consistant demand for last 2 decades.
I am also a domain investor and had registered many blockchain domains (web3 domains) with unstoppable domains in past few years. Then I realised that those domains have negligible value in aftermarket even if they are generic one word domains because there were no buyers for anything beyond $800 to $1000. Even unstoppable domains realised its an hype and then currently they’ve switched to selling the general new gTLDs like .com, .xyz, .net and .org. I’m lucky I stopped further investing in decentralized domain names. The only use-case I have it I can forward my wallet address to my blockchain domain which is bit memorable, like payme.eth