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Monaco Buys The Domain Name Crypto.com

The company now formerly known as Monaco (www.mona.co) has purchased the domain name crypto.com and plans to re-brand the company under the new name crypto. Monaco is a cryptocurrency company that offers its own cryptocurrency token known as MCO. Monaco also offers other services such as a visa prepaid cards and a wallet app, with plans to add crypto invest, crypto credit and other services.

The amount that the name was sold for was not disclosed but the assumption is that it is in the seven figure range. It is very likely that the name sold somewhere between $4 to $8 million dollars. Other high profile crypto related domain names that sold this year are CryptoWorld.com for $195,000, CryptoRate.com for $99,888, CryptoBank.com for 125,000 and eth.com for a whopping 2 million dollars, currently none of these domain names resolve to a website. Considering crypto.com is a superior name to the above mentioned domain names (maybe with the exception of eth.com) it is easy to see how crypto.com could possibly go for $4-$8 million, possibly more.

The other thing to note in regards to the sale is that the previous owner (Matt Blaze) had reportedly received numerous offers for the domain name and turned them down. The surge of interest in the domain name came right around the time when crypto-currencies became one of the hottest thing since internet based companies in the late 90’s (dotcom bubble). Reportedly, his reasoning for rejecting the offers he received was because he did not want the name to be associated with crypto-currencies.

The term crypto is actually short for cryptography, it wasn't until recently that people started using the word crypto as the shortened version of crypto-currency. Blaze, a cryptography researcher and Associate Professor of Computer and Information science at the school of engineering and applied science at the University of Pennsylvania, has been known to publicly express his skepticism for crypto-currencies. In fact, it is one of the first statements you see on the homepage of his blog.

“ Many cryptocurrencies are scams, and I strongly advise against their use as investment vehicles”

Nonetheless, Matt Blaze had a change of heart and decided to sell the domain name. He stated on his blog at mattblaze.org (which previously was on crypto.com). “Over the last few years, I've gotten a growing barrage of offers, many of which were obviously non-serious, but a few of which were, frankly, attention-getting, for the crypto.com domain. I shrugged most of them off, but it became increasingly clear that holding on to the domain was making less and less sense for me. I quietly entered discussion with a few serious potential buyers earlier this year.”

As previously mentioned, Blaze had registered the name well before the word crypto became synonymous with electric currencies. Whois records show that the domain name was registered back on may 6th of 1993. The funny thing about words and symbols is over a period of time their meanings can change, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. Matt Blaze registered crypto.com with the intent to use it for what it is defined by, as a way to bring awareness to cryptography and internet security. It turns out, crypto, developed another meaning and his domain name became one of the hottest domain names out for the electronic currency industry and it looks like it paid off for him big time.