ENS: Let’s Talk Money

On May 3, 2022, ENS volume on OpenSea NFT marketplace reached 2804 ETH or $785K with almost 10,000 sales. On June 4, 2022, volume reached 2724 ETH or $486K with a little bit more than 6,000 domain sales. ENS is more than 5 years old, but before April 27, 2022, daily volume never exceeded 500 ETH and most of the time was below 50 ETH. Since the end of April, it is uncommon to see a day with less than 100 ETH volume.

A number of huge sales added to the total volume and brought ENS more awareness. All major sales, except a few ones, took place in 2022. There have been 27 $100K+ ENS domain sales worth a total of ~$4M. Examining past sales (sorted by dollar price) will give a better understanding of the ENS secondary market.

Costly ENS Domain Jokes

There were 3 sales worth $100K+ that were not included in the list above:

• ensmaxisnft.eth 
• stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth
• buymydomainplz.eth

Domain “ensmaxisnft.eth” was self-bought for 111.69 ETH ($183K) on July 27 as an advertisement for an NFT project. 

Domain “stop-doing-fake-bids-its-honestly-lame-my-guy.eth” was purchased for 100 ETH ($152K) on July 20. The purchase was a result of  a joke, greed, and negligence.

The seller’s gain after marketplace fees was 95.6 ETH ($145K) which was exchanged to USDC and partly reinvested in other ENS domains. Worth to mention that Franklin had 15 minutes to cancel his offer.

Just 4 days later “buymydomainplz.eth” sold for 95 ETH ($147K). Someone made a self-offer of 95 ETH but also listed it for 5 ETH just moments later. Arbitrage bot made $140K by instantly buying for 5 ETH and selling for 95 ETH.

Swift Domain Liquidations

This year 3 wallets sold almost $2M worth of ENS domains in a matter of a few days. A total of 119 domains were sold for an average of $16K. Wallet named “jxaxtre” sold ~$1.4M worth of premium ENS domains in just 11 days. In mid-July 2 other wallets made 6 figures selling a number of premium ENS domains. Most of these sales were English dictionary words and brand names.

Most of these ENS domains were underpriced judging by the speed at which they sold. Worth to mention:

• “hodl.eth” was sold for 10 ETH ($29K) on February 17 and got resold for 55 ETH ($160K) just 11 days later
• “amazon.eth” was sold for 33 ETH ($104K) on February 7 and received a $1M offer on July 18

Major ENS Domain Offers

ENS domain “amazon.eth” could have been the record-breaking $1M sale, but the offer was not accepted. Besides “amazon.eth” there have been other notable offers in the $260K – $1M range.

• The $1M offer for “coin.eth” was made privately through email, but the owner expects at least $20M
• Famous number “420.eth” currently has a private offer of 300 ETH (~$500K), but the owner expects at least 420 ETH (~$700K)
• The second largest ENS sale “abc.eth” supposedly received an offer of 200 ETH (~$500K) prior to selling for 90 ETH ($257K)

There is no way to know whether all of these offers are real. On the other hand, large 6-7 figure offers are often made privately and there certainly are offers & sales we will never know about.

Dutch Auctions for Expired ENS Domains

There could be a number of fake sales or offers, but there is no way to fool with ENS Dutch auctions. ENS domains, if not renewed, expire and become available to anyone in a Dutch auction with a premium. The premium starts at $100M and decreases to $0 in a period of 20 days. In 2022 there were 10 domain registrations in $40K – $100K range.

The last year has been crazy for ENS with 27 $100K+ sales. In 2022 we have seen $785K daily volume on OpenSea, sales as high as 1/3 of a million, $1M offers, and $100K Dutch auction registrations. Quality ENS domains have demand on the secondary market. It has also been proven possible to make 6-7 figures in selling domains in a short period of time. The secondary market is getting more attention day by day and we are yet to see what the future holds for ENS.

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I’m 448.eth and this is my third article. Follow me on Twitter (@448_eth) to learn more about ENS 🙂