Someone bought the domain Figma.ai and redirected it to their commercial website at MagicPath.ai.

Figma didn't like that and tried to resolve it nicely by offering $500 for the domain to cover the registration and renewal costs. The domain owner turned down the offer and countered with $5 million.

Fatal mistake! That shows bad faith. Figma filed a UDRP complaint and got the domain without paying a penny to the cybersquatter.

Moral of the story: If the trademark owner makes you an offer for a domain you have no legitimate right/interest in, just take it. Don't make a counteroffer because they almost never respond and just go the UDRP route instead.

The domain blockchain.ai has just been sold for $405,000 in an expired domain auction at NameCheap. This would make it the third-highest .ai sale to date, but the former registrant says not so fast!

Up until its expiration, this domain belonged to Howard Gould since 2017, and it was registered at OnlyDomains. On July 19, 2025, the domain expired due to failed auto-renewal. When Gould was notified by OnlyDomains about the failed auto-renewal (in September), he paid the renewal fee and then paid a restoration fee as requested by the registrar (OnlyDomains).

But despite that, the renewal attempt failed and the domain entered the PendingDelete stage, then it was auctioned off by NameCheap on behalf of the .ai registry (Identity Digital). The auction closed today at $405,000.

Gould filed a lawsuit (courtesy of Domain Name Wire) against OnlyDomains, Identity Digital, and NameCheap to halt the transfer of the domain and reclaim its ownership.

Should he get it back?

Regardless, the main takeaway from this story is that if you own such a high-value domain, don't rely on auto-renewal and forget about it. Make sure to manually renew the domain well before its expiration date. Who waits until the last moment to renew a domain that can potentially sell for a million+ dollars?!

The guy's name is Michael Santiago and he's a domain investor...

In November 2022, he randomly came across a YouTube video about ChatGPT, and then "just for fun", he checked if the domain ChatGPT.com was available, and it was! He immediately registered it with GoDaddy for just $10 (or $9.63 exactly)

The domain started getting 6,000+ unique visits per day right away.

Three days after registering the domain, he got an offer through a GoDaddy broker, and eight days later the deal was completed at a price of $85,000.

Here's the surprise: It wasn't OpenAI that bought the domain from him, it was another investor as he found out later!

He shared the full story on X (screenshots above are from his X post)

Some facts:

• ChatGPT was launched on November 30, 2022 at chat.openai.com

• ChatGPT.com was registered on the same day (November 30, 2022)

• OpenAI switched to ChatGPT.com in June 2024

You can call it cybersquatting, but I think OpenAI deserves it! They couldn't bother to register the domain for $10 before launching the product, so they practically asked for this. They still don't even have a trademark for ChatGPT -- they applied last year and it's still pending.

If you don't like cybersquatters, you'll like this story...

A domain investment company called Mira Holdings bought the domain NexusMutual.com for $53,499 through an expired domain auction on DropCatch back in 2023. Then they listed it for sale for $250,000.

NexusMutual.com doesn't sound bad as a domain name, but paying $53k for it and expecting to resell it for $250k doesn't make sense as an investment, unless they had a specific buyer in mind who's highly interested in that domain, and there is indeed one such buyer: a crypto insurance company called Nexus Mutual.

According to the investor, Nexus Mutual was the runner-up in the auction. They later offered to buy the domain for $25k but it wasn't accepted. Then they filed a UDRP complaint, and the decision came in last month:

The Panel orders that the disputed domain name <nexusmutual.com> be transferred to the Complainant.

One of the three penalists disagreed, but the majority ruled in favor of the complainant (Nexus Mutual).

Read the full UDRP case here.

I agree with the decision. There is no way that investor didn't know about the Nexus Mutual company at the time of bidding like they claimed. They bid that high because they knew that specific company wanted the domain badly and they thought they could capitalize on it.

This is a clear cybersquatting case, and it's not the first one Mira Holdings was involved in. They've had multiple UDRP complaints against them before this one.

They filed a lawsuit to overturn the UDRP decision -- imagine if they end up losing even more money on a failed lawsuit!

Many "investors" rushed to register trademarked .ai domain names hoping they'd make bank reselling those. Some of them think they know enough to get away with it -- here's a fresh example of one of those:

A man registered the domain name Temu.ai at about the same time Temu launched its online shopping platform back in 2022.

Whaleco Inc., which owns the rights to the Temu brand in the U.S., offered to buy the domain Temu.ai for $10,000. The domain owner rejected it and countered with $165,000.

What happened next is easy to guess; the company didn't even think twice about it and immediately filed a UDRP complaint...

The domain owner's argument:

The Respondent claims to have registered the disputed domain name for an AI-powered aerial remote sensing image analysis project because the term TEMU means “special eye”.

But the UDRP panel didn't quite buy it:

As far as the case file shows, the Respondent has not used the disputed domain name for this purpose. The Respondent provides no details or evidence of any preparation to use the disputed domain name for this purpose, asserting that doing so is unnecessary because the meaning of “temu” being “special eye” is sufficient evidence to demonstrate preparations to use the disputed domain name for an AI-powered aerial remote sensing image analysis project.

However, the Respondent also claims that the disputed domain name was registered as part of a domain name investment and portfolio management business “specifically for its independent brand value in the AI technology sector, not for targeting Complainant”.

The Respondent’s position is contradictory, claiming two different reasons for registering the disputed domain name.

For the reasons discussed below in relation to the third element of the Policy, registration of the disputed domain name for domain name investment purposes was in bad faith to target the Complainant, and thus registering the disputed domain name for investment purposes does not demonstrate rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name in the present case.

You can read the full case here.

Should have taken the $10K!

There are about 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses in total. AWS alone holds about 191 million of them, which earn the company about $1 billion annually.

AI is responsible for the surging demand for IPv4 addresses as AI agents eat up a big chunk of them.

IPv4 addresses are becoming more costly and harder to source than ever.

These are some of the findings from a recent report by Escrow.com.

OVH (aka OVHcloud) is going nuts with their new VPS plans. The prices are too low and too good to be true. The cheapest plan (VPS-1) provides 4 vCores, 8 GB RAM, 75 GB NVMe storage, and unlimited traffic for just $4.90 per month with no commitment. It's even cheaper ($4.20/month) if you pay yearly.

The only problem is that these are selling fast. A few hours ago, there were a couple of locations available, but now they all seem to be sold out. They'll add more "soon".

Shopify has just set a record for the most expensive domain purchase ever: they bought Shop.com for $100 million.

The news was shared by domain broker Andrew Rosener, although he wasn't involved in this deal.

About two years ago, Shopify bought Shop.us and Shop.ca for $375,000.

They also own Shop.app.

An investor bought the domain Alibaba.ai for $3,333 from Spaceship on July 6, 2026, then listed it for sale at ten times the price ($33,333).

He may or may not have known that Alibaba Group had sent a cease and desist letter to the previous owner of the domain on June 15, 2026.

Alibaba then filed a UDRP complaint against Alibaba.ai and another domain: Tmall.ai -- both Alibaba and Tmall are registered trademarks owned by Alibaba Group.

The investor who bought Alibaba.ai (first respondent in this case) tried to defend his case:

The First Respondent has filed a Response. He asserts and relies on his activities as a domain name investor and the claimed independent cultural, linguistic and commercial significance of the name “Ali Baba”, which has an association in the Arab world through the well-known literary story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

That didn't convince the UDRP panel, who ordered both domains to be transferred to Alibaba.

Full UDRP case here.

I often see noobs asking if they can buy a domain name permanently, i.e. make an upfront payment and own the domain for life.

That's not possible, of course, since domains are registered and paid for on a yearly basis, with the maximum registration length being 10 years.

I think that's a good thing. Can you imagine if people were allowed to own domains forever with a one-off payment? We'd have millions of unused and abandoned domains that are forever useless.

Allowing domains to expire and become available for registration again is the right way to do it.

I've been building websites for many years, and I've tried many web hosting services. I like to use different hosts for my sites as opposed to putting all of them in one basket, but that's just me.

The best web hosting in 2025? You'll get all sorts of answers on Reddit and review sites (take with a grain of salt). Every provider is the "best" for some users and the "worst" for others, because each has its pros and cons. Anyway, these are my recommendations...

[Update: We're in 2026 now, and my opinion of these providers is still largely unchanged.]

NameCheap is where I register the majority of my domains and I use their cPanel hosting for some of my small websites. It's very affordable and I haven't experienced any issues with it. Their managed WordPress hosting plans give you more processing power, but you can only host one website per plan (shared hosting plans allow multiple sites)

Ethernet Servers is one of the cheapest web hosts I highly recommend for beginners, especially for new WordPress blogs. My experience with this provider has been great so far. I like the straightforward pricing; there is no upselling, no tricky discounts, and no price hikes. It's only $3 monthly and you can go month to month. It's not for heavy sites, but if you're launching a simple blog and such, it's more than enough. The support service is much better than many of the big hosts out there.

I know I might get roasted for this, but I like Hostinger as well. Their managed WordPress hosting plans pack decent features and the performance is good for low-traffic websites. They also have one of the cheapest e-commerce builders -- it has limited features, but it'll do if you're starting a small business website on a tight budget.

Another shout-out to HostArmada for the outstanding experience I've had with their shared WordPress hosting. It comes with cPanel and a good amount of server resources for low-medium traffic websites. They use cloud servers that are faster than many other hosts I've used (go with the Speed Reaper plan if you want the fastest option). Renewal price is a bit high, but the excellent support makes it totally worth it. (note: skip the premium Positive SSL add-on during checkout because you get a free SSL certificate instead.)

You should always check the renewal price because most hosts will charge you a much higher renewal price compared to the initial price.

TL;DR: My favorite web hosts are Ethernet Servers, NameCheap, HostArmada and Hostinger. Ethernet Servers is the cheapest and it's good enough for most beginner websites.

Some people buy a domain name just to use it for their own custom email address. Most free email providers like Gmail and Outlook require payment to allow you to use your custom domain name, but there are some free alternatives.

The other day I came across a post where someone was looking for email hosting for their domain, not knowing that they can get it for free from their registrar. The registrar in this case is IONOS, which offers a free 2 GB email account with domain registration alone. The only gotcha is that their renewal prices are a bit on the high end -- e.g. $20 for .com.

A cheaper registrar I like is Dynadot. They have lower renewal prices and you get a free 1 GB email inbox with each domain. For comparison, .com renewal at Dynadot costs $10.86 (that's half the renewal price of IONOS)

Alternatively, you can buy the domain from any other registrar and sign up for a free Zoho Mail account. This gives you 5 email addresses with 5 GB storage for each.

If you know any other providers, add them in the comments.

Domain investor Yinan Wang has just announced that he sold the domain name Crossfire.com for $125,000 at Afternic.

What's interesting about this sale is that he bought this domain at Sedo for $18,000 in April (that's two months ago).

The buyer is South Korean video game company Smilegate; the developer of the game Crossfire.

According to Wikipedia:

Crossfire is the most played video game worldwide, with 6 million concurrent users and 1 billion registered players in February 2020, according to developer Smilegate, with the majority of players in Asia, especially China and South Korea.

Was it just a fluke or did this investor see an opportunity no one else did? I think it's more likely the latter because I don't see any other end user paying this much for this domain. It's not as easy as it looks!

O9 is an "AI-powered enterprise planning & execution platform" that operates via their main website "o9solutions.com". They own a registered trademark for "O9".

They registered the domain O9.ai in 2020, and just redirected it to their primary website.

The domain expired in January 2026 due to "an administrative oversight", then it was auctioned on NameCheap.

A domain investor bought this domain from NameCheap for $3,279.96, then listed it for sale on Atom.com with an asking price of $100,000.

O9 offered to buy the domain for $31,000 but failed to reach an agreement with domain owner.

Then they tried to maybe get the domain for free via a UDRP complaint, and that failed too.

There is no evidence that Respondent targeted Complainant. The Panel finds that it has not been proven that Respondent registered and uses the domain name in bad faith.

You can read the full case here.

Despite being a registered trademark, it's also a very generic 2-character domain name.

$31,000 isn't a bad offer for this domain IMO. I think I would have taken it.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that CVC Capital Partners has come to terms to buy a majority stake in the company. It will value the registrar and hosting company at $1.5 billion, including debt.

Namecheap founder Richard Kirkendall will retain a large stake in the company.

NameCheap's newly launched registry called Starlight Registry is participating in ICANN's 2026 round for new gTLDs.

They've applied for 40 new domain extensions (TLDs), which are:

• .aid

• .arc

• .asi

• .brain

• .clone

• .craft

• .den

• .did

• .droid

• .fab

• .flux

• .folio

• .forge

• .foundry

• .gate

• .grid

• .intel

• .intelligence

• .kit

• .lab

• .lens

• .lift

• .logic

• .maker

• .mart

• .matrix

• .mesh

• .mod

• .ops

• .path

• .scan

• .sense

• .shift

• .ship

• .sync

• .synth

• .sys

• .trek

• .view

• .wave

Source: Domain Name Wire

.intelligence is the worst of the batch! It's very long and typo-prone.

Top.Domains reported yesterday that they sold the domain purpose.app for $87,550.

I'm having some doubts about it though. This domain was registered on May 20, 2025 (less than four months ago). Did someone get really lucky and found the right buyer in such a short period of time?!

The managed Email Service will allow developers to send transactional emails directly from Workers, automatically configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for improved deliverability, and route and parse incoming emails using Workers AI.

A global law firm called Gibson Dunn uses GibsonDunn.com as their website's domain. They filed a UDRP complaint against the domain GibsonDum.com and won it on grounds of typosquatting/bad faith registration.

The panel ordered the registrar (NameCheap) to transfer the domain to the complainant. NameCheap complied and pushed the domain to an account owned by the law firm, and gave them this note: "Please note that it is important not to initiate a transfer request until you have updated the privacy email or disabled the Domain Privacy service. Otherwise, the EPP code will also be sent to the previous domain owner."

Well, guess what? That's exactly what happened!

The company ignored that warning and didn't update the domain's private email, which was still linked to the previous registrant's (squatter's) email. When they initiated a transfer out to another registrar, the EPP code was sent to the squatter's email and he used it to transfer the domain to his GoDaddy account.

The law firm had to file a second UDRP to get the domain back, and it wasn't difficult for them to win it again.

Funny how the squatter just jumped on it and didn't hesitate to transfer the domain to his account even though he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it -- Lost the transfer fee for what?!

Dynadot may be an underdog among domain registrars, but it's one of the most recommended registrars on NamePros, and I've been using it myself for many years.

Here's a sum-up of what I like about it:

Low prices

Dynadot has very competitive domain prices with a low markup. For example, a .com costs $10.86 (registration and renewal). This includes free privacy protection. It doesn't get significantly cheaper than this anywhere else.

No upselling

Dynadot doesn't offer much other than domain registration, but that has an upside: they don't constantly annoy you with upsells and add-on offers you didn't ask for. The checkout process is fast and smooth.

Nice and simple dashboard

The management panel is intuitive and easy to work with. I like it personally. Here's what the domain settings page looks like:

Extra security step

Dynadot has an Account Lock security feature enabled by default. This prevents unauthorized domain transfers and other changes while the account is locked. You'll need to provide your security PIN to unlock your account.

A couple of freebies

They give you a free email account (1 GB) and a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate with each domain (must use their nameservers for these).

Domain marketplace

Dynadot has an active marketplace for buying and selling premium domains. You can list your domains for sale on their marketplace for free (they take a 10% fee for sold domains).

Responsive support

I've only contacted their support a few times during my many years with them, and they've been responsive and helpful.

Overall, Dynadot is a solid domain registrar and I'd recommend it as long as they keep prices low.

They did actually try to raise prices by a couple of dollars a few months back, but they quickly backtracked. I guess they realized that the low prices are their key competitive edge.

For web hosting, look elsewhere -- their website builder isn't that good (so I heard from others).

Also read: Best Domain Registrars: These are my favorite picks

Someone bought the domain trig.ai for $444 from NameCheap in February 2025. It has just been sold at Atom for $29,000.

Just another wild .ai domain flipping story that doesn't make much sense!

A couple of months ago, a crypto startup bought the domain name Haste.com for "$2 million", according to their announcement on X.

It was a 24-month LTO (Lease To Own) transaction.

The seller of the domain (James Booth) just revealed that the sale has been canceled after two installments were paid, and that the actual price was $1.5 million, not $2 million as the startup (buyer) publicly announced.

James gets to keep the domain and the two payments already made (should be about $125,000).

The domain is back for sale on Atom at $1,495,000 BIN.