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data Domain Data: What Type of Domains Do Crypto Companies Use?

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Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter in August to have his say on domain extensions. According to Vitalik, .IO and .ME are hot whilst .COM is “stale and boring”. Cryptocurrency, in general, is a hot topic at the moment, and Vitalik’s comments made us think.

Does the rest of the cryptocurrency industry share Vitalik’s sentiments on .COM being a stale, boring extension? What type of domain names and domain extensions are crypto companies really using?

To find out, we downloaded data from over nine-hundred companies listed on Crunchbase in the “Bitcoin” and “Cryptocurrency” categories. Below, we’re going to analyse the domain names used by these companies to see what conclusions we can draw. We'll look at the extensions, the keywords and aftermarket sales of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency domain names from our Crunchbase Pro list, which will hopefully offer an insight to those domainers interested in cryptocurrency domain names.


The Companies

Data for this article comes from a total of 909 companies listed in Crunchbase under the two categories mentioned above. From those companies, 252 showed up as receiving funding with $2.5 billion invested in these companies overall, working out at an average of $10.2 million per company. This funding may have come through conventional means such as venture capital, or via the currently popular Initial Coin Offering (ICO).


The Extensions

Which is the most popular extension amongst cryptocurrency startups? It should come as no surprise to you that the majority of companies own .COM domains. In fact, a total of 63% (573 companies) are listed as operating on a .COM domain.

crypto.jpg
This is less than we’ve seen in previous editions of Domain Data, where our tests have typically shown between 70% and 90% .COM adoption rate.

The most popular alternative to .COM looks to be .IO with 8.8% (80 companies) using a .IO name. This is followed by .CO, .NET and .ORG, which have an adoption rate of around 4% each.

Interestingly, one of Vitalik’s preferred extensions, .ME, occurs just eight times, equating to a 0.88% adoption rate.


The Keywords

Looking through the list of domain names supplied by our Crunchbase Pro license, it was incredible to see the amount of companies using keywords related to cryptocurrencies. Based on these stats, it seems that if you own any “coin” related .COM domain names, a startup may be interested in buying it. However, that’s not a prompt for you to start registering as many “coin” names as possible.

Out of the 909 companies listed, 102 domain names started with the word “coin”. These include popular companies such as Coinbase and Coindesk.

The second most popular keyword is “bit”, with eighty-one companies using the “bit” keyword at the start of their domain. This doesn’t include those using “Bitcoin”, which adds a further forty to that number.

Other popular keywords include “block”, “crypto” and “btc”. The list also includes the domain BTC.com, a name that sold back in 2014 for $1 million.


Aftermarket Sales

Aside from the $1 million sale of BTC.com, were any other domain names in this list purchased on the aftermarket? According to NameBio, yes, there are several. Ranging from five-figure sales through to low four-figure sales:
  • BITCOIN.CO.UK - $30,000 (2016)
  • BITCOIN.COM.AU - $35,182 (2014)
  • BITCOIN.DE - $21,420 (2011)
  • BITT.COM - $6,995 (2014)
  • BITY.COM - $2,702 (2011)
  • BTCC.COM - $58,000 (2015)
  • COLU.COM - $10,000 (2016)
  • FLEXCOIN.COM - $1,001 (2016)
  • OKCOIN.COM - $2,295 (2013)
  • SWARM.CO - $2,500 (2016)

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Unfortunately, we are unable to share the original data since it was procured using a Crunchbase Pro license.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Pretty thorough analysis. Thank you.

Under your keyword category, you state out of 909 Companies, 102 use "coin" at the start of their domain. Very interesting.

Since the majority of companies use the term keyword+coin as the name of their coin, I was wondering how many Companies use that as their actual domain address?

So, How many Company urls have "coin" at the end of their url?

Thanks,
Vito
 
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Vito,
That’s interesting. I only considered the start of the name but I’ll take a look at the data again when I can and I’ll post a follow up comment.
 
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Awesome topic, thank you. I love me some .IO
 
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Before the ban on Bitcoin by China, I have seen most of Chinese bitcoin and other crypto currency site used domain start with "Bi"
 
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Here is the top recent sold domain end with word "Bi".

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://no_url_shorteners/Nk4RuQju6d">https://no_url_shorteners/Nk4RuQju6d</a> sold for $56248 USD. It suits the cryptocurrency trading platform-(<a href="https://no_url_shorteners/amYvxjyujN">https://no_url_shorteners/amYvxjyujN</a>).And &quot;bi&quot; means &quot;coin&quot; .</p>&mdash; DomainNewsChina (@ChinaDomainNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChinaDomainNews/status/907497036236206081?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">September 12, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
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However, that’s not a prompt for you to start registering as many “coin” names as possible.
haha, as if domainers needed such a prompt wrt to "coin" names. That landrush is already long gone
 
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Does the rest of the cryptocurrency industry share Vitalik’s sentiments on .COM being a stale, boring extension? What type of domain names and domain extensions are crypto companies really using?

I don't think .COM could be boring for now and in the next ten to twenty years to come. For any company that wants to cut across the world of internet.
Some companies could chose to use other extensions for them to be unique; but that does mean .com is boring to them. IMO
 
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Based on these stats, it seems that if you own any “coin” related .COM domain names, a startup may be interested in buying it.

I've had a few inquiries, my ask is high but look at the crypto market right now. 10 BTC is $70k.

Picked up a few kw+coin domains before the BTC explosion.

I have two domains that match active crypto coins/projects, time will tell.
 
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I got to .ME is hot....not much point reading on
 
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Pretty thorough analysis. Thank you.

Under your keyword category, you state out of 909 Companies, 102 use "coin" at the start of their domain. Very interesting.

Since the majority of companies use the term keyword+coin as the name of their coin, I was wondering how many Companies use that as their actual domain address?

So, How many Company urls have "coin" at the end of their url?

Thanks,
Vito

A total of 70 companies have domains that end in the word "coin" or "coins"
 
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A total of 70 companies have domains that end in the word "coin" or "coins"

Once again, Awesome info.
Thanks for following up with my question. I appreciate it James!

Keep up the great work.
Vito
 
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Always nice to see, whichever way you cut it, .com is omnipotent. Around a 55% margin between .com and the runner up, .io? Speaks volumes, especially with an unlimited supply of .com alts out there for the choosing.

Thanks for the spotlight on this, as I'm happily & heavily invested into the space. I personally can't get enough of the trending crypto-keyword stats, so keep them coming, please!
 
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I guess .io can gain traction in Crypto industry, although not as much as .com, but definitely has the potential to close the percentage gap between the two. Remember, crypto field is full of people with "anti-establishment" mindset & this need to differentiate themselves may push them towards .io.

Moreover, since we're still seeing only the start of this industry, .io still has time to rise much above 8%
 
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I guess .io can gain traction in Crypto industry, although not as much as .com, but definitely has the potential to close the percentage gap between the two. Remember, crypto field is full of people with "anti-establishment" mindset & this need to differentiate themselves may push them towards .io.

Moreover, since we're still seeing only the start of this industry, .io still has time to rise much above 8%
Trust me, I'm definitely cognizant of this, although registration costs are still an inevitably painful factor.

Own many .alternatives like:
BTCApp.io
BTCATM.io
Decentralization.co
Blockchainer.co
+ many more
 
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The Extensions

Which is the most popular extension amongst cryptocurrency startups? It should come as no surprise to you that the majority of companies own .COM domains. In fact, a total of 63% (573 companies) are listed as operating on a .COM domain.

This is less than we’ve seen in previous editions of Domain Data, where our tests have typically shown between 70% and 90% .COM adoption rate.

The most popular alternative to .COM looks to be .IO with 8.8% (80 companies) using a .IO name. This is followed by .CO, .NET and .ORG, which have an adoption rate of around 4% each.

Interestingly, one of Vitalik’s preferred extensions, .ME, occurs just eight times, equating to a 0.88% adoption rate.

Im surprised .co.in and .in are not on the list like with freebit.co.in or freebitco.in...
 
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Here is the top recent sold domain end with word "Bi".

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://no_url_shorteners/Nk4RuQju6d">https://no_url_shorteners/Nk4RuQju6d</a> sold for $56248 USD. It suits the cryptocurrency trading platform-(<a href="https://no_url_shorteners/amYvxjyujN">https://no_url_shorteners/amYvxjyujN</a>).And &quot;bi&quot; means &quot;coin&quot; .</p>&mdash; DomainNewsChina (@ChinaDomainNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChinaDomainNews/status/907497036236206081?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">September 12, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
hmmm that did not work
 
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No new Gs on the list...
 
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No new Gs on the list...
<----------:facepalm:

crypto.one is missing, also an active site.
 
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We just bought Cypherium.net in the off chance these four brilliant Asin kids ( from Microsoft and Google) hit it big with their new blockchain-we'll see. Please Google "Cypherium"
 
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