Recently, a Chinese collector bought a three-digit Ethereum Name Service (ENS) for 55.5 ETH. The transaction comes as the demand for rare three- and four- numeric domain names intensifies.
ENS Service: Domain Names Fueling The Latest NFT Craze
An unidentified Chinese collector recently paid over $160,000 for an ENS domain name. 555.ETH. The investor bought the domain name for 55.5 ETH to make it the most expensive ENS ever sold. The scale of the transaction contributed significantly to the surge in ENS domain total sales over the last week.
There has been a recent surge in ENS domain sales with several collectors scrambling to own rare three and four-digit ENS domain names. The hysteria is partly due to speculations regarding the future value of numeric domain names.
The ENS provides domain name services for the Ethereum blockchain, and is controlled by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO); as such, members of its ecosystem participate in collective decision-making with governance tokens.
In addition, developers designed Ethereum Name Service domains to simplify complex traditional addresses into shorter formats that end with a .eth suffix. Interestingly, the creators labeled ENS names as the future of decentralized websites. However, ENS domain names currently find their use as simple alternatives to traditional Ethereum wallet addresses.
Users can mint ENS domain names directly from the ENS platform and sell them on exchange platforms. So, you can also obtain ENS domain names through secondary trades on NFT marketplaces.
The 10k Club: Collectors Buying Domain Names For Fun
The Chinese collector claimed to have purchased the 555.eth domain name for fun, and this claim is not surprising as it follows a trend of NFT investors obtaining the rare ENS domain names to be part of the “10k club.” Ownership of a four-digit ENS domain name qualifies the holders of 0-9999.eth for membership in the social club.
This trend is partly responsible for the surge in three and four-digit ENS secondary trading over the past week. For example, the ENS head of Community Alisha.eth noted that 446 ETH worth of ENS NFTs were traded on Opensea on April 26th alone.
ENS lead developer nick.ETH also provided data that consolidated the community head’s claims. The data showed the growth of ENS revenues from $700,000 to $3million between April 14th and April 27th.
ENS Names: Easy to Read Domain Names Are the Future
Buterin noted the perks of three and four letter-ENS names in a tweet two years ago when he stated that they’re fixed supply assets, and holders can do things with them.
The benefits are also evident in that ENS names have fewer characters and are easier to spell and search, and as such, the adoption rate is expected to keep increasing.
Meanwhile, the increased demand for ENS domain names has also positively affected the project’s native asset. As a result, the token has experienced a 20% increase over the past week and is now trading around $16.35. So, generally, the last week has seen a positive spell for the ENS ecosystem.
