A preview of the Merge to come? Ethereum Name Service’s decentralised domain names have seen an unprecedented amount of buzz in the last week, to the point where they’ve overtaken their biggest rivals like Bored Ape Yacht Club. We take a closer look.
Ethereum Name Service: NFTs are going crazy right now
As a reminder, Ethereum Name Service offers decentralized domain names in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which run on Ethereum (ETH). Each domain name is linked to a portfolio, and the most in-demand ones are sold at a high price. For example, 000.eth sold for more than $300,000 last July.
Want to learn more about decentralised domain names? Check out our guide to Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
Over the past seven days, Ethereum Name Service NFTs have been the largest trading volume on OpenSea, with 2,429 ETH, or more than $4 million at current prices. They are followed by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), with 2126 ETH, then RTFKT Clone X with 2004 ETH.
Users rushing to register domain names
The more specific the domain name, the more it can be resold at a significant price in the future. But it is not just about that. More and more brands are “reserving” names, like Puma, which bought puma.eth earlier this year.
In total, almost 10,000 domain names were reportedly traded in the last week, which shows how popular they are. This seems to be a basic trend. A few days ago, Ethereum Name Service reported that 301,000 new name registrations were made in August:
August 2022 stats for ENS
– 301K new .eth registrations (total 2.17m names)
– $4.7m in protocol revenue (all goes to the @ENS_DAO)
– 2,744 ETH in revenue (3rd highest month)
– 34K new eth accounts w/ at least 1 ENS name (total 540k)
– ☻99% of OpenSea domain vol pic.twitter.com/utU8i4cBMT– ens.eth (@ensdomains) September 1, 2022
Over the same period, the protocol generated $4.7 million in revenue. The drop in cryptocurrency prices, and transaction fees on Ethereum, has allowed a new wave of users to gain access to domain names. So the buzz around Ethereum Name Service NFTs doesn’t seem to be dying down any time soon.
