Crypto & NFT | Two trending keywords in domain names | An analysis

We all know that domains are essential for online presence and the use of business-related keywords in domain names is a winning best practice. Due to the rapid growth of the crypto and NFT industry in recent years, the use of these two keywords to create memorable domain names has boomed.

Even though the record growth of crypto and NFT has recently grinded to a halt, the success of these markets over the past years is increasingly leading companies to register domains with these trending keywords.

In our Global Domain Report 2022, we noticed a trend regarding domains with “crypto” and “NFT” in the top premium search terms. “Crypto” and “NFT” keywords reached the highest peaks in 2021, also accounting for the most expensive domain sales.

We wanted to shed light on and better understand how the market is moving. So, we took advantage of the opportunities offered by Dataprovider.com’s search engine to scan the web and get an overview and screenshot of the state of domains containing the keywords crypto and NFT. The data gives us an excellent and reliable overview of this market segment and provides fascinating insights.

The dataset of domain names with the keyword “crypto”

It is not surprising that, during one of the first Bitcoin hikes in 2017, Verisign reported that nine out of ten trending keywords for .com and .net were related to cryptocurrencies. The keyword has amassed value since then and related domains have sold for thousands of dollars on various marketplaces, reaching new record-breaking numbers.

In order to have the broadest and most reliable database, reflecting the situation of domain names with the keyword crypto as accurately as possible, we included variations in different languages and analyzed possible IDNs in the most-spoken languages worldwide. Our dataset included these variants:

• crypto and crypt for English
• krypto and krypt for most Germanic languages
• Крипто in Cyrillic alphabet for most Slavic languages
• Κρυπτο for Greek
• Kripto for Turkic languages
• Cripto for Romance languages
• 密码 for Simplified Chinese
• 暗号 for Japanese
• क्रिप्टो for Hindi
• تشفير for Arabic

We must point out, however, that domains with languages other than English and Romance added only a couple of hundred more domains to the results. Internationalized domain names (IDNs) account for only 0.3% of the dataset. We also kept in mind that the keyword crypto is related to more than just cryptocurrencies. It can be connected to the study field of cryptography and encryption services. To achieve more precise results, we filtered the results by removing all domains containing the word “cryptography”. Only a minimal amount of results were lost. Eventually, we ended up with a dataset of domain names containing the keyword crypto in all its variants, comprising 576,582 records.

The keyword “crypto” in domain names is trending

The cryptocurrency market has grown enormously over recent years and this highly technological trend has had a knock-on effect for domain names. Thus, the keyword “crypto” has boomed in the past two years. From October 2019 to September 2022, there was a 92.98% increase in hostnames containing the keyword “crypto”. Let’s look at the data in detail.

The first task we set ourselves was to analyze the origin of these domains. Looking at the geographic area where the domain is located or originates from, North America is far ahead (67.5%) of any other continent.

The United States is also the country with the largest number of these domains, home to the top 3 regions, i.e., California (11.4%), New York (9.6%) and Florida (4.1%). The first region with the highest percentage of crypto-keyword domain names in Europe is the area of Greater London (4.5%) in the UK, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany (2.3%) and Upper Austria (2.1%).

Content on domains containing the “crypto” keyword

Now let’s look at the content hosted on domains with the keyword “crypto”. Only 40.4% of the dataset of 576,582 records reveals a developed website, i.e., a website containing manually created content. 28.6% of domain names are placeholders and 24% of these domains are parked, i.e., up for sale, reserved or just showing ads.

If we shift our focus to parked domain names, we find that the data presents an interesting comparison of the current trend in the crypto world and its influence on the domain industry. As of October 2019, parked domains containing the keyword crypto accounted for 3.9% of the dataset. In two years, as of September 2022, there was a 679% increase in parked domains with the keyword crypto. Domain investors have been riding this trend and have invested heavily in domains containing this market-relevant keyword!

56.3% of the identified content on websites on this database is related to work, finance or IT services. 7.4% is related to crypto multimedia and entertainment content. Regarding the CMS used, 49.9% opted for  WordPress, followed by Sitefinity (38.6%). Unsurprisingly, as far as accepted payment methods are concerned,  59.9% of these domains accept payments in Bitcoin.

Which TLDs are used for domains containing the keyword crypto?

To register domain names with the keyword crypto, 19.5% of registrants turned to new gTLDs and 8.7% to ccTLDs. The gTLD .com leads the way.

If we disregard .co, which despite being a ccTLD, is generally used as a generic TLD standing for “company”, the ccTLD top 5 lists .de (1.2%), .eu and .ru (0.5%), followed by .nl and .uk (0.4%). When talking about extensions, we cannot but highlight the growth of .xyz in this sector. It increased to 265% over the last two years! The XYZ Registry has invested in multiple partnerships with several players of the Web 3.0 ecosystem, raising .xyz as one of the favorite gTLDs in this segment. For example, they partnered with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), allowing registrants to use a .xyz domain as their wallet address.

The increasing interest in NFT impacts the domain industry

The non-fungible token (NFT) is a new and exciting way to collect digital assets. NFTs are digital items that can be owned and sold but cannot be copied or duplicated. This makes NFTs appealing to collectors and investors as they are truly unique and one of a kind. These elements are built on blockchain technology and are mostly sold on marketplaces. In the last two years, there has been an increased interest in NFT, peaking in Google search in January 2022.

The use of the keyword “NFT” in domain names

Searching for domain names containing the keyword “NFT” in the database at Dataprovider.com, we got a dataset of 341,246 records. Unlike the keyword for crypto, we did not use alternative versions in other languages. Although there is a translation in every language for the extended version of “non-fungible token”, the abbreviation is also widely used in languages using other scripts. It was evident that such a huge trend would impact the industry. Hostnames containing the keyword “NFT” from October 2019 to September 2022 increased by 500%!

Once again, North America and the United States are the front-runners of these technology trends. However, looking at the data in more detail and considering only the regions, we do have an exciting plot twist on offer.

Although Germany is the second country per hosted domain names containing the keyword “NFT”, far from the high USA percentage, it reaches the first place on a regional level. Baden-Württemberg (11.8%) and North Rhine-Westphalia (11.4%) are the regions where most websites with the keyword “NFT” in their domain name are located, followed by  Bavaria (9.7%) and the Berlin region (5.5%) follow.

Germany also leads the “NFT” chart at a city level, with Berlin in first place (11.3%), followed by Hamburg (4.3%) and Munich (4%). Cities like New York (1.8%), San Francisco (1.5%) and London (1.5%) demonstrate lower rates.

Content on domains containing the “NFT” keyword?

A topic such as NFT sparked a race to grab the best domain names for launching future projects or selling them to the best buyer. Among the 341,246 records, only 32.3% have a developed website with manually created content. 33.4% of the domain names are placeholders with content provided by a registrar and 25.9% are parked domains.

Which TLDs are used for domains with the keyword “NFT”?

22.9% of domain names containing the keyword “NFT” are registered under a new gTLD while 12.7% are registered under a ccTLD. The German ccTLD .de is the most present (6.2%) and, again disregarding .co, the Chinese ccTLD .cn (1%) takes second spot, with .at (0.5%) and .ch (0.4%) following. Since NFTs have a close connection with the art world, seeing the new gTLD .art in the chart should not come as a surprise.

Economic and social trends influence the domain industry

In an ever-changing world, the domain industry is no exception. It is constantly evolving as social, technological, and economic trends influence the markets. Everything that happens in the world nowadays needs a domain name — from websites to blogs to web apps to mobile apps. Analyzing the market’s current state, the rush to register domain names with the crypto and NFT keywords becomes clearly visible. Specific niches are still developing content under these domains, while others are already leveraging their memorable internet address.

Want to register a domain with the keyword “crypto” or “NFT”? We’re sure you’ll find what you need under one of our 1,500 TLDs.

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