Disclosure: I used to own a bunch of .now domains, I sold some, dropped some, gave others away, I currently own 5 of which 1 is a $1k/year premium that I intend to drop.
First and foremost, I think .now is one of the most promising gTLDs. The end user demand is very obvious and makes sense because the extension is a fantastic word for many different use cases. There is nothing to indicate that the extension's end user demand is fake or manipulated in any way. I think it is very likely to see .now have hundreds of thousands of registrations in the years to come.
Second, registry premium pricing was invented by registries to prevent domain name investors from hoovering up all the great domains to keep the profits for themselves. Registry premium pricing is an adversarial invention designed to defeat domain name investors, a domain name investor registering a registry premium domain is entering into a battle with the registry while at a severe disadvantage. The cost basis of a domain to a registry is... zero, nothing, nada, zilch. Purchasing a registry premium at $500/year or $1k/year or $5k/year and hoping to make profit on it is very high risk. An investor registering registry premium domains is betting their money that they know better than the registry.
Third, yes, there is manipulation of .now from other investors. I've expressed this sentiment privately and I'm sure lots of people in this thread know exactly who it is. That's just... domain names. Obviously investors want to pump up the demand for the extension they own, and that's exactly what this thread is. If someone is wash trading domains... okay? As an investor you should be considering the market as a whole, not looking at one off sales. Free advice: assume all sales are meaningless unless you can account for the end user's motivation / incentive / financing.
Fourth, most investors are idiots most of the time. The success we have comes from the small moments of genius. You can make 99 bad registrations but 1 good registration makes it all worth it. A good investor understands their limitations and does not bet the house on something as ridiculous as a very expensive registry premium domain. I have made some terrible auction purchases that I'll never make my money back on... that's on me. I'm the idiot. Someone who registers a $5k .now registry premium and then loses their money on it is an idiot.
Fifth, and counterintuitively, you only need to look at the constant speculation around .xyz extension sales being fake to realise that even in skepticism, most of us are monumentally stupid. There's a small group of people who absolutely believe without ever wavering that all .xyz sales are fake. No, they're not... the .xyz extension actually has real end user demand.
Filing lawsuits against a registry or investor for market manipulation is utterly pointless. Money laundering? Please. If someone bought a registry premium because they saw a reported sale of a similar name then they're an idiot. I'm going to guess the fool involved is the person who registered ai.now the first time, or maybe the second time.
