impressed by what @richrines and @BrendonSedo are doing at @Coredao_Org to expand accessibility of Bitcoin, especially in emerging markets. excited to add even more utility to the #Coretoshis community with the launch of *core names, securing their interoperable web2<>web3 namespace for the future of the internet! 🔶🤝🌐

.SHIB will be the next .COM!

Strategy spent billions acquiring 640K bitcoins but they also spent $2M acquiring these: Emma .com Mike .com Wisdom .com Alert .com Frank .com Speaker .com Arthur .com Glory .com Usher .com Courage .com William .com They made 15x of the whole investment with voice .com sale.

Michael Saylor lost $6B in a single day when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, one of the largest single-day personal losses in history at that point. But while his MicroStrategy stock collapsed with everything else, the premium domains he'd been quietly acquiring during the 90s just sat there, holding their value. Emma, Mike, Wisdom, Alert, Voice, and all those single-word domains averaging around $100k each, totaling about $2M in acquisitions. When the crash came, these didn't evaporate the way stock prices did. The internet kept growing, domains still resolved, and the scarcity remained provably real even as the speculative valuations burned down around them. That distinction mattered. Saylor wasn't just holding these domains as digital collectibles. He was building actual businesses around some of them and commercializing others through MicroStrategy's research and development division. Alarm .com became a real home security company. Angel .com turned into a customer experience platform. The companies performed, and when the market stabilized, buyers showed up. Block .one approached Saylor about Voice .com in 2019, offering $150k initially. He said no. They doubled it to $300k, then $600k, then kept climbing. At $12M, Saylor got on the phone and told them the domain was like his daughter. He'd only sell it to someone who valued it more than he did. They closed at $30M, which was 200x their initial offer and remains the largest pure domain sale in history. One year after that sale, Saylor announced MicroStrategy would start buying Bitcoin as their primary treasury reserve asset. He spent $250M in two weeks acquiring over 21,000 BTC. The thesis makes perfect sense when you see the through line. Domains proved that digital assets with real utility and provable scarcity can survive complete market collapses while speculative plays go to zero. The infrastructure persists even when the hype dies, and if you own the foundational pieces, the value eventually finds you again. Most people remember Saylor for his Bitcoin conviction, but domains were the lesson that taught him which digital assets actually last.

been absolutely fascinated by BTCfi since first meeting @richrines and @brendonsedo. the power of defi on bitcoin is long overdue!

Icon(dot)com sold for $12 million earlier this year. The 6th highest publicly reported domain sale since 2003. The story everyone focuses on is the price. What I find more interesting is what this represents - one transaction in a 360+ million domain market where most premium assets never transact at all. This is the broader RWA story in microcosm. Traditional assets with proven value, trapped in legacy systems that can't deliver liquidity or composability. Real estate faces the same problem. Valuable assets, archaic transaction systems. Art, collectibles, intellectual property - all the same dynamic. High value, low liquidity, no infrastructure for fractional ownership or efficient price discovery. Domains just happen to be the cleanest example. They're already digital, global, generating revenue., and have 30 years of legal framework through ICANN. The infrastructure exists, the value is established, the market is proven. What's missing is the rails to make these assets behave like modern financial instruments. This isn't a domain problem. It's an RWA problem. And solving it for domains unlocks the template for everything else. Eight-figure sales prove the asset class works. Now we build the infrastructure that makes that the norm, not the exception.

ENS built one of crypto's most loyal communities: nearly 800K owners, 1.7M names registered, 750 app integrations. Now all 370M+ internet domains can access Ethereum, just like eth names do. DNS meets Ethereum infrastructure without any complexities. Excited to work with @ensdomains and its community!

Domains can’t be tariffed either. gdoma @domaprotocol

Shoutout to Celestia for having me on their RWA panel to discuss how we're making domains liquid and tradeable Onchain liquidity is impossible without trust and @celestia is a core part of @domaprotocol’s ability to deliver liquidity for domains.

To domainers and @domaprotocol community, what interesting prediction markets would you like to see for DomainFi? Pitching @j0hnwang a few obvious ones… 😉 - Global domains registered - .AI vs . FUN popularity - Total TLDs by 2030 - etc.

In case you didn't know, the highest .ai domain sale in 2024 was girlfriend .ai followed by sound .ai and boyfriend .ai Says a lot about tech bro priorities

we started @D3inc to build bridges between tradt’l tech and crypto — web2 and web3. that mission is still true today, but now, bigger and better with a category we’re defining ourselves in DomainFi. congrats to our amazing team, our partners, and our customers for this recognition. it’s just the beginning! 💪

Unpopular opinion after a week in Seoul: The least sexy asset class might be the best one. Domains don't pump 1000x. They don't crash to zero. They just maintain inherent value as digital real estate that businesses actually need.

if you can bet on TCGs, you can bet on real-world assets… Domains. Only on @domaprotocol.

Next-level dev tools at Solana Startup Village @superteamkorea knows what developers need Spoiler: it's Korean instant noodles

Good vibes and filled house at SuperTokyo by @SolanaJapan ! Solana bridge coming soon to @domaprotocol 👀 DomainFi.

The domain industry figured out identity value in the 1990s Parents bought FirstNameLastName .com for newborns. Professionals paid premiums for exact name matches. The behavior scaled because it made intuitive sense. The limitation was always economic. These domains sit unused while accruing renewal fees. John owns John .com but only needs it occasionally. DomainFi fixes this. John keeps ownership but can now share access with other Johns and generate yield. Same proven behavior, programmable infrastructure.

Registrars control distribution to 360M+ domains globally. That's more valuable than most SaaS companies with similar revenue multiples. The difference being registrars haven't monetized the financial layer yet. They're distribution platforms pricing themselves like commodity resellers. This is why we've architected @domaprotocol to be registrar-first. When you add programmability and liquidity infrastructure, you're not disrupting registrars. You're 10x-ing their TAM.

Just wrapped up discussing the rails required to bring next-gen assets like domains on-chain at The Verified Summit. To tokenize 364M+ domains, you need rails that are both DNS-compliant yet DeFi-ready. And that’s what we’re building with @domaprotocol & our new Mizu liquid domain launchpad.

The RWA checklist you can use as an operatooor… 1/ Is the asset already valued by the real world? 2/ Can I prove ownership without a human middleman? 3/ Are current or future cash flows or rights machine-readable? 4/ Is there a legal/compliance path if things go wrong?

Domain names are sexy. 🔥

The former investment banker in me still models businesses in 10-year DCFs, not 18-month token pumps. Domain renewals generate recurring revenue annually. That's 70%+ retention rates creating predictable cash flows. When you tokenize that, you're not creating a speculative asset. You're creating a tradable instrument backed by predictable cash flows. That's the difference between DomainFi and most crypto projects. We're modeling this like a massive TradFi business coming onchain, not a protocol with token incentives.

Wide arms to present a big vision for DomainFi in 🇸🇬. Let’s go @heyheyfred 💪

Spoke about making domains liquid again at Multichain Day. Premium domains have traditionally been illiquid assets. We're changing that with Mizu - the first platform for liquid domain investing.

Gave a short talk to kick off @chriseyin and @teddyP_xyz’s RWA Day in Dubai. 🇦🇪

Domains are valuable in any language. Korea's crypto-savvy market gets something most regions are still learning - digital assets aren't separate from "real" assets. They're just assets. They understand fractional ownership through real estate. Digital scarcity through gaming. DeFi through crypto. The cultural framework exists. Now we're building the technical rails with partners like @celestia to bridge compliance and decentralization.

Stablecoin issuers capture headlines But the real value accrual is in payment rails built on top. The infrastructure that enables $222B daily on-chain volume to move efficiently. Same pattern with domains. The domain itself is the asset. The tokenization infrastructure is the rails. Rails compound value as volume scales. That's why our approach isn't "issue new namespace" - it's "build rails for existing $350B market."

We launched Mizu - the world's first DeFi launchpad for domains. For domain investors: Your premium domains can now reach millions of Web3 users and tap into DeFi liquidity - you retain control and set the terms. For traders: Real assets with actual utility, not pure speculation. DNS-compliant, DeFi-ready. Domains aren't just digital real estate anymore. They're programmable financial primitives. The internet just became liquid.

There's a predictable evolution every asset class goes through: Paper certificates → Electronic records → Programmable tokens We've watched this happen with equities, fixed income, and now digital art. Each transition unlocks new forms of liquidity and utility that weren't possible before. Domains are at this inflection point right now. They've existed as electronic records for decades, but the infrastructure to make them truly programmable is finally here.

Excited to work with the @celestia team to scale tokenization for the next BILLION domains, on-chain.

"I focus on capital preservation over appreciation." Arthur Hayes said this at KBW today, and it perfectly captures why domains are such a compelling opportunity. Real utility assets that generate recurring value often outperform the flashy stuff everyone’s chasing. We're lucky to have @MaelstromFund is an investor and early supporter DomainFi

Singapore during Token2049 is always the best pulse check for where crypto is headed. Crypto spent the past years maturing. We saw builders shift focus to revenue and real businesses instead of pure speculation plays. And now things are ramping up further because institutions brought hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity, and they want foundations. When they're investing in an asset, they're looking at 10 years down the road, not dreaming of 1000x pump and early retirement like retail chased. The shift shows up in what's getting traction: - Stablecoins proving their value in real payments and commerce - DeFi evolving into financial infrastructure that makes sense to everyone - IP projects expanding from NFTs into actual consumer products - RWAs getting institutional backing and bringing traditional assets on-chain When institutions show up with real capital, boring businesses become interesting again. They don't want speculation plays that leave them holding worthless bags. This is exactly what we're building at @domaprotocol. Real infrastructure for domains as an asset class.

I’ll be presenting at @plumenetwork’s RWA Ecosystem Day in Dubai this April 28th! Join me in diving into RWAs, DomainFi on @domaprotocol, and what’s next for the $340B+ Domain asset class, along a great lineup of founders, VCs, and ecosystem leaders. RSVP below: lu.ma/tiv8pwn6

The tokenization thesis only works when the asset is already digital, legal framework is clear across jurisdictions, and tokenization removes actual friction. Domains pass all those criteria. Already digital through DNS, clear ownership rules, global recognition built in. Most RWAs fail at least two.

I've talked about domains at all kinds of places but this has to be the wildest. DeFi discussions in the middle of a Singapore hawker center, surrounded by Hainanese chicken rice stalls. Builder Nights energy. Thanks @MetaMask for hosting at such an iconic spot.

DomainFi

Some liquidity found in Japan. MIZU 💦

$1.5B @Namecheap acquisition by CVC capital validates the domain infrastructure thesis: 🧵👇

Going mammoth with our friends and partner Celestia in Seoul tomorrow Will be speaking at S(e)oulish Mamo, co-hosting together. Who will I see there?

The problem with building "decentralized identity" outside DNS: You're creating a parallel system that doesn't interoperate with the internet everyone actually uses. No browser support means no real-world utility. No utility means it's just a speculative asset with identity branding. Real infrastructure works with what exists. That's why we built DNS-compliant from day one.

Seoul had different energy this year Korea's crypto market has always been ahead on retail adoption and trading volume. KBW made it clear the market is now consolidating and maturing while still growing. The Naver-Upbit acquisition is a recent example of that - institutional infrastructure being built, not speculation plays. Most markets either grow or mature. Korea is doing both simultaneously. That creates different dynamics for how builders approach partnerships and go-to-market there.

This might be controversial, but starting centralized is often the only way to actually build something that scales. Liquidity follows trust, and when your underlying assets come from traditional finance or Web2, you can't abandon the permissioned attributes that make those assets valuable in the first place. Domains are the perfect example. Their value comes from ICANN governance, DNS infrastructure, and universal browser recognition. These "centralized" elements provide clear ownership records, dispute resolution mechanisms, and guaranteed global accessibility that businesses depend on. Strip away those elements, and you're left with worthless tokens that browsers don't recognize and businesses can't use. Every successful Layer 1 started with centralized validators then gradually decentralized. Even Bitcoin had Satoshi mining most blocks early on. Crypto projects that try to launch "fully decentralized" from day one usually die from coordination failures. No clear direction, no way to drive initial adoption, no bridge to existing value systems. You need centralized coordination to solve the bootstrapping challenge. Then you can progressively decentralize as real network effects kick in. This is especially true for real-world assets. Institutional money won't flow to protocols that ignore regulatory compliance or existing property rights just to check decentralization boxes. @domaprotocol works within DNS and ICANN systems because that compliance is what makes domains functional. We're not decentralizing away from the source of trust, we're building on top of it. Pragmatic scaling beats ideological purity every time. The goal should be sustainable decentralization that preserves what makes assets valuable, not performative decentralization that destroys underlying worth.

Spotted in the wild @WebX_Asia. Crypto loves domains, too… gDoma.

UDRP exists specifically for cases like this - established brands can legally claim domains that infringe their trademark rights. Domains have 30+ years of unified global standards with decentralized administration that protects internet integrity. Usernames are at platform discretion. The username only has value because the brand has value. That brand value is protected through domains, not platform permissions.

Everyone wanted to skip the registrar layer and go direct to domain owners, but we knew that wouldn't scale because you can't bring an industry on-chain by bypassing the infrastructure that actually runs it. That's why we focused on building the widest bridge possible as an onramp for registrars and the domains they manage. InterNetX/IONOS with 22M under management serves as the foundation, while innovators like EnCirca, NicNames, and Sav push the boundaries forward. ConnectReseller joining now is another proof point. Building the DomainFi economy never stops. Each registrar we add expands the network of domain owners who can put idle premium assets to work, and every partnership makes the vision more inevitable. DNS-compliant tokenization only scales when the people who run this infrastructure see value in making domains programmable, and that's exactly what's happening.

Mobile keeps showing up as the unlock for crypto adoption, and the data backs it up consistently across different metrics. Crypto crossed $4 trillion this year while mobile wallet users hit all-time highs, up 20% from last year. Vector, Moonshot, and the Q1 2025 wave of fungible trading platforms proved mobile wallets could handle real trading infrastructure. Props to @ilmoi and @0xrwu at Tensor for leading this shift. Trade any asset from anywhere now, which changes the game for bringing domains onchain.

Who needs GTA 6 when you can ride a Korean taxi They are no joke when it comes to driving fast and slipping through the heavy traffic. Still have to appreciate the way they keep the seats so clean.

The best infrastructure is invisible until you need it.

We kept it simple: good food, better people, honest ideas. Co-hosted a small dinner with US/JP cross-border VC @nngcap during @WebX_Asia. Left even more bullish on Japan’s builders, diverse users, and the future of DomainFi! ありがとうございました 🇯🇵🙏🏻 s/o to @meidlin for the photo

Your biggest competition isn't another crypto startup, it's inertia The developer who uses Stripe because it works and the integration takes 20 minutes. The finance team that sends wire transfers because that's what they've always done. Crypto asks people to learn new tools, trust different infrastructure, change their workflow. You need to be meaningfully better at solving the actual problem, not just technically superior in ways users don't care about.

Things crypto founders obsess over: - Token design - Governance structures - Decentralization theater - Twitter metrics Things that actually determine if you succeed: - Whether anyone wants what you're building - Whether you can acquire users profitably - Whether those users come back - Whether you can sustain a team long enough to figure it out The gap between those two lists explains most failures.

domains are… {enablement, connectivity, payments, intellectual property, identity,} internet real estate.

What TradFi gets right: Risk management, compliance, and user protection. What DeFi gets right: Permissionless innovation, programmability, and composability. The future is in bringing the best of these two worlds together.

U S D (dot) AI domains, bro. @0xZergs

If you're in Seoul for KBW, DeFi Builder Cafe is where the real conversations will happen. Speaking on Wednesday alongside @CryptoHayes and top DeFi project founders Excited to talk about the tokenization and De-Fi of internet domains and what we're building at D3

Had a great time hosting Hotpot Night with @akshat_hk and @MaelstromFund! Thanks to all the builders & friends that stopped by to learn about DomainFi on @domaprotocol. 🫰

A common misconception is that domain investing is too expensive for new people. You don't need to spend $10k+ on premium domains to get started. You can invest in emerging extensions like .ai, .xyz, .bot or .now with less than $100. It's never too late.

Having good first principles will always win long-term… separate the signal from noise. Much noise in bull markets, do more with less 👌

Proud of our team for showcasing our new SDK that just launched! D3 Connect seamlessly bridges the Internet with Web3 identifiers! Reverse resolution included… 👌

Everyone's trying to become a perp DEX following Hyperliquid's success. First it was Aster, now MetaMask. But this will just result in a race to the bottom, sacrificing trading fees for volume and users. We've seen this pattern before. Traditional brokers bundled expensive research, advice, and execution into high-fee packages. Robinhood unbundled it and made the core transaction free. DEXs are following the same playbook. Sacrifice fees, capture users, build new business models on that foundation. Lower barriers mean products that weren't viable before suddenly become possible.

Building in Web3 means balancing two competing forces: The need for permissionless innovation and the necessity of real-world integration.

All bid-ask volumes can and should be verifiable and enforced by smart contracts. @domaprotocol exists to solve issues of trust in the domain economy so that real, on-chain assets can find better price discovery and deeper liquidity. TOKENIZE.

Let’s fix the middleman problem! Use @domaprotocol. domains/acc

Developer ecosystem playbooks would work better if: -Co-design use cases with *few* standardized and measurable metrics -Prefer majority of funding be retro -Map early user stories before green lighting -Treat like a joint product launch with real docs for maint. / upgrade -Can be easily explained in two sentences or less

2026-2027: .sol, .ape, .shib and more. only with @D3inc. 🌐

we started @D3inc in the bear and it was truly the ultimate test of grit, curiosity, and interest for the problems we were trying to solve. startups are always roller coasters regardless of what stage you’re at (0-1, 1-10, 10-100, etc.), but having strong foundations and first principles go a long way. focus, speed, and execution is all that matters for most. GM to all the builders with f/s/e! 💪

gm, city of gold 🇦🇪

CZ is right about tokenized gold. It's a "trust me bro" token where you're betting a third party actually has gold in a vault and will honor redemptions during a crisis. RWAs hit $30B this year, led by treasuries, private credit, and commodities. The winners don't introduce new trust assumptions. Tokenizing physical gold doesn't remove the custody problem, it just adds blockchain complexity on top. Domains are different because they're digitally native. When you own a tokenized domain, you own the actual asset, verified on blockchain. No physical vault or counterparty that might change redemption rules, except in cases of DNS abuse. Domains have additional utility that can be added natively within the token. Programmable subdomains, fractional ownership, composability with DeFi protocols. You're not just moving an existing asset onchain, you're unlocking functionality that wasn't possible before. The domain industry does billions in transactions every year that go unreported. The demand exists and hints are there. @DNJournal does a great job reporting what it can. Blockchain just makes transactions faster, and safer to settle. You can't lose what was never physical to begin with.

👀 Probably Nothing . . . . fool.com/investing/2025/04/0…

GPT 5 Thinking or you’re behind

never fade a milk tea on a Taipei layover

Super bullish coming out of Consensus HK talking RWAs with @jp_mullin888 and @chainlink's Liam Karwan on stage. All eyes on projects building for the real world. 💪

embedded wallets are the easiest way to onboard web2 users to crypto. confirmed @skerskerrr and the @privy_io team are killin’ it!

whenever the markets are down, just announce a new BTC/SOL/ETH ETF or have Coinbase/Robinhood launch a new product. playbook for instant price recovery 😬

Metaplanet trades rich because structure = edge (tax arb 55% vs 20%/NISA tax-exempt benefits and from access). In the U.S., spot ETFs already solved access, so “digital asset treasuries” don’t get the same mNAV pop… premium comes from operator skill and execution (leverage, buybacks, accrual), not the wrapper.

Can’t be the GOAT without taking your fair share of swings & misses. Lesson in there 🐐🫡

You know you can love Ethereum, and Solana also too right…? 💜 RWAs.

what would you do?

Institutions are adopting blockchain infrastructure without calling it crypto. Stablecoins processing trillions, ETFs bringing capital onchain, banks launching tokenized treasury products. The primitives that started in crypto are being rebuilt with regulatory compliance and institutional distribution. This is always how new technology scales. The experimental phase proves what works, then the institutional phase adds compliance and connects to existing systems. We're in the second phase now. The companies that built compliant infrastructure during 2020-2023 are seeing distribution that was impossible 18 months ago.

value proposition of “crypto-native” namespaces will only improve if they become real (new) TLDs which make them unique, secure, and accessible on the Internet natively. you can simply embed things like addresses within a domain that facilitate easier end-user experiences leveraging the power of internet distribution, payments included. many on-chain apps will leverage this. that and the fact that people are willing to pay generously for a human-readable identity, especially if it’s interoperable.

most APYs in crypto should have the word “volatile” added in front of them.

Its an honor to officiallly announce our partnership with @animecoin, @locationtba, @stevewchung and team to launch the .ANIME TLD. This collaboration empowers builders within the Animecoin ecosystem, including @azuki to connect and grow their global community—bridging traditional internet and Web3 users. We keep building 🫡

mindblowing statistic from @binance, their algorithm has found over 15m fake wallet addresses used in address poisoning attacks since last year businessinsider.com/personal…

Not a scam, just a mediocre domain 🤣

congrats to @0xNairolf for making it huge!!

Robinhood is offering access to OpenAI and SpaceX equity via blockchain. Democratization and better access to valuable assets for everyone. bullish tokenization!

Neutrality might be the regulatory unlock if partners help design, but don’t necessarily control the rails entirely long-term.

Some key takeaways from this week’s UDC 2025 🇰🇷 hosted by @upbitglobal: - Dunamu is launching @DUNAMU_Giwa, an OP-stack L2 focused on payments. Is this Base for Korea?! - KRW rails forming, Naver Pay and Toss commerce giants all involved with their own stablecoins. There will be more than one issuer - Stablecoin bill and bank-led support is the gateway for wider crypto adoption. Policymakers now paying attention Korea is standardizing “boring but scalable” rails — compliance-first UX and distribution through apps people already use. Good conditions for RWAs to go mainstream… Higher.

he knows what’s up! 😎

very proud to announce @D3inc’s newest partner @MagicEden! excited to work with @psalm @therealmiso2049 and @ElizabethOls0n to bring .magic to the Internet! 🪄🌐

VCs and wall street funding OpenAI to replace VCs and wall street… 🤣

Amazing to see real crypto adoption en masses. Normalize web2.5. Nature is healing. hats off to the entire @privy_io team!

Join us in a deep dive into DomainFi and a look into my journey in creating this brand new narrative.

Dinner in Tokyo @ one of the oldest restaurants I’ve ever been to, from the Edo period (~1850)… Looks simple, but confirmed the soba was truly bussin’ 🍜 Big thanks to @RoiSarak for the hospitality ありがとう、友よ 🙏🏻

DomainFi.

Check out Mizu now: mizu.xyz

The biggest challenge in startups is actually just getting over the start line… Easy to analyze and call out problems from the sidelines. Get in the arena and GSD!

Asia is an obvious channel for crypto retail, but just as importantly, the developers. @SaigonButcher and @superteam have created an amazing opportunity in @SolanaSummitOrg to grow developer adoption… now! Can’t miss if you’re building on @solana. LFG 🫡

Remember the UX for dApps back in 2021? We've improved so much since, and contributes to the influx of people experimenting in crypto for the first time. Composability + better tools + mature primitives = exponential builder velocity and that is our guiding light as we build @domaprotocol. 💪

first class example of the pain points I can’t wait for @domaprotocol to solve.