Ask Me Anything - Fred Hsu, Co-Founder & CEO of Doma

[Doma Protocol]

Hey NamePros Community!

Fred here, Co-Founder & CEO of Doma. Thrilled to host an AMA on NamePros!

The domain industry is at an inflection point - and the question of how domain owners can actually unlock value from their assets has never been more relevant. Whether you're a seasoned domain investor, a developer, or just exploring what's next, I'd love to dig into the topics that matter most to you.

Our theme for this AMA: Monetization & Liquidity

Some thought starters for our discussion

• Monetization in 2026: Where is real end-user demand coming from? What monetization models are actually working for domain holders today?
• Liquidity for domain assets: Why is it so hard to unlock value from domains, and what does a more liquid domain market look like?
• Domain tokenization as RWAs: What does it mean to tokenize a domain as a real-world asset — and what does that unlock for owners?
• Web2 meets Web3: How do existing .com, .xyz, and .ai domains fit into the emerging Web3 ecosystem?
• And bring on the Doma questions!

Event Details

When : July 23rd at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Where : Right here in this thread!

Drop your questions below NOW or join me live on July 23rd. Looking forward to learning from and with you all!

 

[URL Stream]

Hey NamePros Community!

Fred here, Co-Founder & CEO of Doma. Thrilled to host an AMA on NamePros!

When : July 23rd at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

https://www.namepros.com/threads/as...ed-gm-of-name-com.1391109/page-2#post-9648081

Drop your questions below NOW or join me live on July 23rd.

@Bravo Mod Team, could we be made aware whether each AMA is sponsored or not?

I'm all for them whenever there's genuine value for investors, the community, and the featured company.

I just think that should be made a little clearer upfront.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

@Bravo Mod Team, could we be made aware whether these AMAs (respectively) are sponsored or not?

None of them are sponsored. We don't have an advertising option related to this.

 

[URL Stream]

None of them are sponsored. We don't have an advertising option related to this.

Promoted?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/as...ed-gm-of-name-com.1391109/page-2#post-9648028

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Promoted?

Promoted on Twitter and NamePros. Not paid promotion.

 

[Future Sensors]

Welcome Fred, and thanks for this AMA.

I currently hold several NTF‑Class digital assets. Items that, in their present state, serve primarily as historical documentation of my past enthusiasm.

I would appreciate clarification on whether these artifacts can be converted, repurposed, or otherwise encouraged to participate within the doma protocol, or whether their long‑term role remains limited to being educational exhibits.

Any investment guidance that helps prevent future acquisitions of similarly commemorative instruments would also be welcome.

 

[dnsassistant]

will you create a DOMA coin and do a airdrop anytime soon?

 

[Altetra]

Is it free to list a domain or paid, what do you get back as a benefit?
Does any domain gets approved or only top tier?

 

[Eric Lyon]

Monetization in 2026: Where is real end-user demand coming from? What monetization models are actually working for domain holders today?

^^This one....

In today's environment, economy and a wide range of other factors (Along with the tragic loss of AFD), it's more common for domain investors, resellers, hobbyists, affiliates, etc... to be seeking additional monetization ideas. I've written extensively about various methods over the years (Many I tested personally), but I would love to hear your take, experience, and observations in today's digital world when it comes to generating revenue for a domain name (Parked, Landed or Developed).

I look forward to hearing back from you

 

[Domen]

Welcome Fred,

Its nice when you could provide many registrar partner , so the domain owners should not transfer out their domain.

Simply push or move the domain to your registrar holding account. I check there is only several registrar partner in your services.

 

[fka]

I think there are 2 separate points of discussion. Fractionalization itself, and this implementation of fractionalization. I'm going to focus on this implementation for my question, although I do have separate thoughts on fractionalization and how to bring liquidity to the domain name market. My question about Doma's implementation follows:

As far as I can tell, there isn't any price discovery by the market and instead the price of the domain is set by the owner. Smoothie.com has a Domain Price of $3.5m with 10% of that price allocated for tokens (~1 million tokens at ~$350k) but obviously smoothie.com isn't worth $3.5 million, a much more reasonable appraisal for the amount the domain could sell for is $350k.

There seems to be an obvious conflict here. The owner of a domain wants to extract the maximum amount of money from the market by selling tokens, while the token owners want the maximum chance of the domain name selling. The owner has every incentive to set the Domain Price as high as possible despite that making it much less likely for the domain name to sell.

If someone buys 1,000 smoothie.com tokens for $350 and then the domain sells for $3.5 million they get... $350? What's the likelihood of smoothie.com selling for $3.5 million? That would put it in the top 50 domain names sales of all time. Almost as valuable as z.com and slots.com. And to make a meaningful profit, the domain would need to be one of the top 20 sales of all time.

The platform seems to be...

1. The owner decides how much they want to make from the domain
2. The owner multiplies that number by 10
3. The owner lists the domain with a Domain Price equal to 10x how much money they want to make
4. Laypeople buy 10% of the tokens, lining the pockets of the domain owner

And eventually, as the token holders lose confidence in the domain ever finding a buyer, they sell, price is driven down, and then the domain owner can buy back all the tokens at a significant discount before removing the domain from the platform. And then sell the domain for a reasonable amount. Free money!

I don't see how this implementation of fractionalization can work when there is an adversarial relationship between the domain owner and the token holders, instead of a collaborative one. Sophisticated domain name investors would never touch this as a token holder because of the price disparity. Every sophisticated investor knows that smoothie.com will never sell for $3.5 million.

The simple solution is to require the domain owner to pay for the tokens they want to issue. If they want smoothie.com to have a Domain Price of $3.5 million and issue 10% of that value as tokens then the domain owner should be paying $350k for those tokens. If the domain owner isn't willing to put $350k in for 10% then... well, that's a pretty clear vote of no confidence in their own valuation.

Framed as a question: how do you ensure that the platform is sustainable long term when there are competing interests because domain owners have zero skin in the game? Why doesn't the market decide how much the domain is worth?

---

I may unleash the wrath of the Castello brothers by saying smoothie.com isn't worth $3.5 million but come on, they know that I know that they know that this is a ridiculous price. Whisky.com is an order-of-magnitude better domain, which the Castello brothers sold for... $3.1 million. We're meant to believe that they believe that Smoothie.com is worth more than Whisky.com (even accounting for inflation)? Smoothie.com isn't even plural.

Also, software.ai is obviously a significantly more valuable domain than smoothie.com but that has a Domain Price of just $2.5 million. The market would never value smoothie.com more than software.ai yet the platform is designed in such a way that, apparently, smoothie.com is 30% more valuable than software.ai.

 

[eipi]

Hi Fred,

won't try to look like a seasoned crypto dude (don't even have a wallet - yet), but this caught my attention and after completing a long chat with an AI assistant and trying to digest answers word by word all morning, here it comes:

1- what happens when you try to get back your half-sold domain by buying all of your shares back from market (if it did not get community interest), but some guy lost his wallet containing a fraction? [this might not be the way system works but anyway]

once it's on market, should we pretty much assume ownership is gone?

2- Smart Contract Hack / Flash Loan Attack: can system be manipulated so that a $20k domain be bought for pennies?

3- how does the system affect the way UDRP filings are handled ? (if it does)

4- You opened domain's whole %100 shares. It is totally sold. What if the DAO buying your domain turns out to be a Rogue DAO later? any legal risks relating to that?

Thanks in advance

 

[Future Sensors]

Would also be interested in hearing @enetwork's vision behind his investment in D3 Global.

https://domainnamewire.com/2025/01/29/d3-raises-25-million-series-a/

 

[Doma Protocol]

Hey NamePros Community!

Fred here, Co-Founder & CEO of Doma. Thrilled to host an AMA on NamePros!

The domain industry is at an inflection point - and the question of how domain owners can actually unlock value from their assets has never been more relevant. Whether you're a seasoned domain investor, a developer, or just exploring what's next, I'd love to dig into the topics that matter most to you.

Our theme for this AMA: Monetization & Liquidity

Some thought starters for our discussion

• Monetization in 2026: Where is real end-user demand coming from? What monetization models are actually working for domain holders today?
• Liquidity for domain assets: Why is it so hard to unlock value from domains, and what does a more liquid domain market look like?
• Domain tokenization as RWAs: What does it mean to tokenize a domain as a real-world asset — and what does that unlock for owners?
• Web2 meets Web3: How do existing .com, .xyz, and .ai domains fit into the emerging Web3 ecosystem?
• And bring on the Doma questions!

Event Details

When : July 23rd at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Where : Right here in this thread!

Drop your questions below NOW or join me live on July 23rd. Looking forward to learning from and with you all!

Quick heads up, before our AMA on July 23rd, we're also cooking up a little something - a NamePros-exclusive promo on domain registration & renewals on Doma.

Use the promo code

NPDOMA — 50% OFF Registrations
NPDOMARENEW — 50% OFF Renewals

*Valid on Registrations & Renewals on app.doma.xyz, excludes .ai domains, expires Aug 1st, 2026.

Drop your questions now - monetization, liquidity, tokenization as RWAs, Web2-meets-Web3, all on the table.

AMA is on July 23rd, 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST. See you there!

 

[Future Sensors]

These AMA threads are becoming increasingly... remarkable.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for doing this forthcoming AMA. Look forward to the responses and interaction.

I am not sure I have a specific question, but this captures the topic I am most interested in.

Web2 meets Web3: How do existing .com, .xyz, and .ai domains fit into the emerging Web3 ecosystem?

I was a fan of some of the core principles of Web 3, but never a fan of blockchain 'domains' as introduced. I think certain things in life need regulation, and while we can disagree with aspects of how regulation works in the centralized DNS, it seems to me essential. So what is my question? How do you feel about the TLDs that include both blockchain aspects and ICANN DNS, or do you see some other way forward?

Thanks in advance,

Bob

 

[Doma Protocol]

Thanks for doing this forthcoming AMA. Look forward to the responses and interaction.

I am not sure I have a specific question, but this captures the topic I am most interested in.


I was a fan of some of the core principles of Web 3, but never a fan of blockchain 'domains' as introduced. I think certain things in life need regulation, and while we can disagree with aspects of how regulation works in the centralized DNS, it seems to me essential. So what is my question? How do you feel about the TLDs that include both blockchain aspects and ICANN DNS, or do you see some other way forward?

Thanks in advance,

Bob

Bob, great question.

Since founding D3 in 2023, we’ve been very consistent on this. We never believed alt roots or systems that create name collisions were the path forward. Global acceptance matters.

We also never viewed wallet addresses or so-called “Web3 domains” as replacements for the DNS. They serve different use cases.

Our thesis has always been simple: take real ICANN domains with real demand and make them better with blockchain—bringing liquidity and programmability to infrastructure the world already uses for identity.

The future isn’t replacing the DNS. It’s upgrading it. That’s been our view since day one.

 

[Lox]

These AMA threads are becoming increasingly... remarkable.

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