Blockchain domain platform Unstoppable Domains and five of its partners have dropped plans to apply to ICANN, the international organization that coordinates the internet’s domain name system and approves new top-level domains, for 14 domain extensions. They include .crypto, .wallet, .bitcoin, .brave, .polygon, .nft, .dao, .unstoppable, .zil, and .blockchain.
“The company had overestimated demand for Web3 domains during the 2021 crypto and NFT boom. The market remains small and niche today,” said Unstoppable Domains CEO Matthew Gould.
Existing Web3 names will continue to operate as on-chain assets and can still be used, for example, for cryptocurrency transactions. However, they will not become standard domains or receive full support from mainstream browsers.
At the same time, Unstoppable Domains and its partners have submitted five new applications to ICANN: .agi, .robot, .gram, .hub, and .xmr.
What This Story Says About Web3
The Unstoppable Domains story is revealing not so much about the domain market as it is about Web3 as a whole. In 2021, amid a huge surge of interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, blockchain domains such as .crypto and .nft were seen as a possible foundation for a new internet — one without centralized registrars and with names tied to the blockchain. However, mass demand for this kind of infrastructure never emerged.
Another fact is especially telling: more than 90% of Unstoppable Domains’ business now comes from traditional DNS domains. In other words, even a company that originally bet on blockchain-based names now generates most of its business from conventional domain infrastructure.
For the market, this is another example of the gap between the expectations created by the 2021 crypto boom and actual mass-market demand. The technology continues to exist and find uses within Web3, but attempts to take it beyond the crypto ecosystem have so far failed to create a mass-market product.