Things I Learned About Domains from My Interview with Elias Benger, CEO of InterNetX

Most of the conversations I've had on this topic start with crypto people explaining domains. This one went the other direction. Elias Benger runs InterNetX, a registrar inside the IONOS Group — one of the largest domain registrar groups in Europe. His company manages millions of domains across thousands of TLDs (top-level domains, the suffixes like .com, .de, or .shop that sit at the end of every web address). He's not a crypto native. He's an infrastructure operator.

So when Elias tells me he's building on a blockchain protocol, that signals something different from a DeFi founder making the same claim — Elias's company already profits from the existing system, so his motivation to add blockchain infrastructure requires a concrete business case, not ideology. The obvious question: why would a registrar already making money from the existing system voluntarily add blockchain infrastructure? The domain business already works. Registrars already make money. What's the pull?

His answer came down to a single distinction that reframed how I think about every blockchain project in the domain space.

Elias wasn't describing some pilot programme or innovation lab experiment. He was describing a strategic decision made after roughly a year of evaluation — Elias told me InterNetX came to the Doma Protocol partnership around 2025, after approximately twelve months of due diligence.

Here's why the product-versus-platform distinction matters so much, and why most people miss it.

If Doma were selling a product — say, a proprietary tool that registrars plug into — InterNetX would be buying vendor dependency. Every feature request goes through one company. Every pricing change is at that company's discretion. That's how most enterprise software works, and registrars are deeply familiar with the downsides.

A platform operates differently. Doma provides shared infrastructure. When InterNetX tokenises domains on it, and NicNames tokenises domains on it, and EnCirca tokenises domains on it, every participant benefits from the growing network. More liquidity, more wallets, more trading volume — and none of it is locked inside one registrar's walled garden.

• ›InterNetX retains its customer relationships, its enterprise tooling, and its ICANN accreditation
• ›Doma provides the on-chain settlement layer — not a competing registrar service
• ›Every new partner that joins increases the value for every existing partner
• ›InterNetX evaluated this for approximately one year before committing — that's enterprise procurement rigour, not a weekend experiment
• ›The IONOS Group scale means this isn't one registrar dabbling; it's institutional validation

That said, the Visa/bank analogy has limits. Visa is a neutral payment network with decades of regulatory oversight and multiple competing networks (Mastercard, Amex). Doma is a specific blockchain with its own governance, upgrade authority, and — as we'll discuss in the risks section — potential for vendor lock-in that the platform framing can obscure. If Doma's chain halts, experiences a governance dispute, or makes unfavourable protocol changes, every tokenised domain on the network is affected. The platform model distributes some risk but concentrates other forms of it.

How Doma's economics work: As of April 2026, Doma's full fee structure has not been publicly disclosed in detail. It is not clear whether Doma charges per-tokenisation fees, takes a percentage of on-chain trades, or relies on L2 gas revenue. Registrar partners like InterNetX may also add their own mark-ups for tokenisation services. If you're evaluating Doma, ask your registrar explicitly about all fees — protocol fees, gas costs, and registrar integration fees — before tokenising.

What this means for you: The registrar you already use — or one of its upstream providers — could integrate Doma without you ever needing to switch providers. The on-chain layer sits underneath, not in front of, the services you're familiar with. But understand that you're trusting a specific chain's governance and your registrar's continued integration — not a neutral utility.

This is where most explanations go wrong. They either describe Doma as "blockchain domains" — which makes people think of .eth names and browser plugins — or they skip the technical layer entirely. Neither is accurate.

Doma Protocol is the world's first DNS-compliant blockchain for tokenising traditional internet domains. That means .com, .ai, .xyz, and any other extension you'd register through a normal registrar. These domains already work in every browser on every device. Doma doesn't change that. What it adds is a programmable ownership layer on top.

Technically, Doma is an EVM-compatible Layer 2 — a blockchain that processes transactions off Ethereum's main chain but inherits its security — built on the OP Stack, the open-source framework behind OP Mainnet and the Optimism Superchain. Its mainnet launched on November 25, 2025 (per Doma's official announcement — verify against on-chain records if precision matters to your decision-making).

The part that confuses people: Doma is explicitly not a registrar. It doesn't sell you domains. It doesn't manage your DNS records. It's infrastructure that registrars build on top of.

Doma uses a dual-token model. When a domain is tokenised, two types of ERC-20 tokens are created:

• ›DOTs — represent on-chain ownership and transfer rights for the tokenised representation of the domain
• ›DSTs — represent on-chain DNS control signals. Whoever holds the DSTs can point the domain to servers, edit records, and manage the technical side — to the extent that the integrated registrar honours the on-chain signal

A critical distinction about ownership: Holding DOTs represents on-chain ownership of the tokenised representation of a domain. However, ICANN-level legal ownership — the registrant status recorded in WHOIS/RDAP — is a separate concept governed by the registrar agreement and the applicable legal jurisdiction. Doma's protocol and registrar integrations link DOT ownership and ICANN registrant status, but they are not automatically identical in all legal contexts. If a registrar de-integrates from Doma, or if a legal dispute arises, the ICANN registrant record remains the authoritative ownership layer. Buying DOTs on a secondary market gives you on-chain ownership that is only as enforceable as the registrar's continued cooperation with the Doma protocol.

Similarly for DSTs: DST holders can control DNS only to the extent that the registrar has implemented Doma's protocol and continues to honour on-chain signals. If a registrar's integration breaks, is revoked, or the registrar ceases operations, DST holding alone does not give you DNS control at the registry level. The article presents a protocol-level abstraction — actual enforcement depends on the registrar layer.

This separation of DOTs and DSTs matters. A domain investor can hold DOTs (own the on-chain asset, trade it) while a technical operator holds DSTs (manages the website). It maps how domain ownership and DNS management are already separated in enterprise environments — just made explicit and programmable on-chain.

The backing behind this: a Series A led by Paradigm (reported as $25M in Doma's press materials; independently verify via [Doma's announcement or Paradigm's portfolio page] as funding amounts from single sources should be treated with appropriate caution), with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Sandeep Nailwal (co-founder of Polygon). The CEO, Fred Hsu, has spent 25+ years in the domain industry. He co-founded Oversee.net, whose ad-tech operations were later involved in transactions with Criteo. (The acquisition history involves multiple entities; the simplified version is that Fred has deep roots in domain monetisation infrastructure.) This isn't a crypto team learning about domains. It's a domain team that understood what blockchain could add.

Mainnet stats as reported on Doma's own explorer dashboard (snapshot taken approximately March 2026 — on-chain stats change daily, and these figures come from Doma's own reporting, not independent third-party verification): $38M+ in trading volume, 3.2M+ transactions, 107,000+ tokenised domains, and 25,500+ connected wallets. Treat self-reported metrics with appropriate scepticism and verify against the Doma block explorer for current figures.

What this means for you: Your .com still works exactly the same way in every browser. Doma adds the ability to own, trade, and potentially fractionalize that domain on-chain — without breaking anything that already works. But on-chain ownership and ICANN legal ownership are linked by the protocol and registrar, not identical by default. Understand the distinction before making purchasing decisions.

The order of these steps matters. You don't start on the blockchain — you start with a normal domain through a normal registrar. The on-chain part is a layer that gets added, not a replacement for the existing registration process.

Step-by-Step: Tokenising and Trading a Domain on Doma

1. Register a domain through a Doma partner registrar. As of April 2026, the partner registrars include NicNames, InterNetX, EnCirca, Rumahweb, ConnectReseller, and Interstellar. You register your domain through their standard interface — the process is identical to any normal domain registration.

2. Initiate tokenisation via the registrar's dashboard. Each partner registrar provides its own interface for this. On NicNames, for example, you'll find a tokenisation option in your domain management panel. You'll need to connect a Web3 wallet (or use NicNames' custodial wallet if you're new to crypto). The registrar verifies you are the registrant and triggers the minting process.

3. DOTs and DSTs are minted to your wallet. Once tokenisation is processed, you receive DOTs (ownership tokens) and DSTs (DNS control tokens) in your connected wallet on the Doma L2. The registrar updates its internal records to reflect that domain ownership signals are now linked to on-chain token holdings. Your WHOIS/RDAP registrant status remains with the registrar — the on-chain tokens are linked to, but distinct from, this record.

4. List on the Doma marketplace or trade peer-to-peer. The Doma marketplace at app.doma.xyz allows you to list domains for sale. Price discovery currently works through fixed-price listings (not an AMM or order book model). You set your asking price. Buyers browse, purchase, and receive DOTs directly. Peer-to-peer transfers are also possible — you simply send DOTs to another wallet address.

5. Buyer receives DOTs; registrar updates WHOIS. When a sale completes, the buyer holds the DOTs. The integrated registrar is signalled to update the WHOIS/RDAP registrant record to reflect the new owner. The speed of this WHOIS update depends on the registrar's implementation — on-chain settlement is near-instant, but off-chain registrar record updates may take additional time.

Estimated costs: You'll pay L2 gas fees on Doma's network for minting and trading (typically small, but variable). Registrar-side fees for tokenisation are not standardised — some registrars may charge a tokenisation fee, others may bundle it into registration pricing. Doma's own protocol fee structure is not fully public as of April 2026. Ask your registrar for a complete fee breakdown before proceeding. The comparison to 10–20% traditional broker commissions is directionally valid, but presenting Doma as "zero fees" would be misleading — gas costs, potential protocol fees, and registrar mark-ups all exist.

Estimated time: Tokenisation typically completes within minutes to hours depending on the registrar. On-chain trades settle near-instantly. WHOIS registrant updates following a trade depend on the registrar's backend processing.

Additional Features

• ›Fractionalization means splitting a high-value domain's ownership tokens among multiple holders. Richard Lau has announced plans to fractionalize Rides.com on Doma — a domain too expensive for most individual buyers could become accessible as a fractional investment. (Verify the current status of this specific fractionalization on the Doma marketplace, as announced plans and completed on-chain actions are different things. See the regulatory section below for important warnings about fractionalised tokens.)
• ›Subdomain utility goes beyond speculation. Wines.xyz token holders can mint subdomains (e.g., mike.wines.xyz) as human-readable wallet addresses. That's real functionality, not just a collectible
• ›The DOTs/DSTs split means you could sell ownership (DOTs) while a technical partner retains DNS control (DSTs), or vice versa. This flexibility doesn't exist in the traditional domain system — though remember that this flexibility is only as robust as the registrar's continued integration

To participate in Doma's ecosystem you'll need ETH for gas fees on the L2. If you already hold crypto in another token and want to swap to ETH without creating a new exchange account, a no-KYC swap service like ChangeNOW can bridge you over in minutes.

What this means for you: If you've ever sold a domain through a broker — waiting weeks for escrow, paying commissions that typically range from 10–20% (per Sedo and Afternic published rate cards) — the on-chain alternative offers faster settlement and potentially lower costs. But "lower" is not "zero." Factor in L2 gas, any protocol fees, and registrar charges when comparing.

Elias put this bluntly: "You need to be very big to make the other network irrelevant — and currently everything of relevance is on ICANN and DNS."

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains the single authoritative root of the internet's naming system. Every browser, every device, every operating system resolves ICANN-managed domains natively. According to Verisign's Domain Name Industry Brief for Q3 2025, approximately 359.8 million domain names were registered — a figure likely near or slightly above 360 million by early 2026. The UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy) provides trademark enforcement. If someone squats on your brand name, there's a legal process to get it back.

An open question for tokenised domains: What happens when a UDRP panel orders the transfer of a domain that has been tokenised on Doma? The UDRP process operates through registrars — a panel decision instructs the registrar to transfer the domain to the complainant. But if ownership DOTs are held in a third party's wallet, who enforces the on-chain transfer? Can (and will) the registrar override the blockchain record? As of April 2026, there are no published UDRP decisions involving tokenised domains, making this genuinely uncharted territory. If you tokenise domains that could face trademark disputes, understand that the registrar retains the ability to comply with UDRP orders at the ICANN level regardless of on-chain token holdings.

Now compare Doma's approach to the blockchain naming alternatives:

Comparison: Doma vs ENS vs Handshake vs Unstoppable Domains

| Feature | Doma Protocol | ENS (.eth) | Handshake (HNS) | Unstoppable Domains |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| Domain type | Tokenises existing ICANN domains (.com, .ai, .xyz, etc.) | Native .eth names on Ethereum | Native TLDs on Handshake blockchain | Native extensions (.crypto, .x, .wallet, etc.) |

| Browser resolution | Universal — domains already resolve in all browsers via DNS | Partial — natively supported in Brave and Opera; eth.limo gateway for others; not natively resolved in Chrome, Safari, or Firefox without add-ons | Requires HNS-aware resolvers or extensions | Requires compatible browsers/extensions or IPFS gateways |

| Relationship to ICANN | Works within ICANN root — tokenises ICANN-registered domains | Parallel system — no ICANN relationship | Alternative root — potential TLD collision with future ICANN delegations | Parallel system — no ICANN relationship |

| Dispute resolution | UDRP applies (via underlying ICANN domain) | No UDRP equivalent | No UDRP equivalent | No UDRP equivalent |

| Ownership model | DOTs (ownership) + DSTs (DNS control) — linked to registrar WHOIS | NFT-based (ERC-721) | NFT-based on Handshake chain | NFT-based (minted on Ethereum/Polygon) |

| Primary use case | On-chain trading, fractionalization, and programmable ownership of real DNS domains | Crypto wallet identity, decentralised websites | Decentralised TLD ownership | Crypto wallet identity, decentralised websites |

| Ecosystem size (approx.) | 107,000+ tokenised domains (per Doma, March 2026) | 2M+ .eth registrations | ~10M+ HNS names | 4M+ domains minted |

| Cold-start problem | None — uses existing DNS infrastructure | Moderate — growing browser support but not universal | Significant — requires alternative root adoption | Moderate — similar to ENS |

None of these are bad projects. But Elias's framing is about network effects, not technology quality. The ICANN root already won the network-effects battle decades ago. Any alternative root must convince billions of devices to recognise it. That's not a technology problem — it's a coordination problem of enormous scale.

It's worth noting that ENS's browser resolution situation has improved since its early days. Brave and Opera offer native or near-native .eth support, and the eth.limo gateway provides access through any browser. However, mainstream browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) still do not natively resolve .eth addresses, which remains a significant adoption barrier for general audiences.

Handshake's TLD collision risk deserves precision: Handshake auctions TLDs that may overlap with ICANN's future delegations, not necessarily current ones. The collision risk is prospective — if ICANN delegates a new TLD that Handshake has already auctioned, two systems claim authority over the same suffix. Active collisions are not widespread today, but the structural risk is real.

Doma's insight: don't fight DNS. Tokenise what already works inside ICANN. Your .com resolves in every browser today and also lives on-chain as a programmable asset. No plugins. No alternative roots. No fragmentation.

What this means for you: If you own a .com, .ai, or .xyz domain, tokenising it on Doma doesn't change how it works for visitors. It changes how you own, trade, and manage it — using blockchain rails instead of brokers and escrow. If you're evaluating blockchain domain options, the table above should help you understand the trade-offs between systems that work within ICANN and those that operate outside it.

According to Verisign's Q3 2025 Domain Name Industry Brief, approximately 359.8 million domain names were registered worldwide. Doma reports just over 107,000 tokenised domains (per their explorer, approximately March 2026). That's roughly 0.03%. Even 1% penetration would mean 3.6 million domains on-chain.

But the raw 360 million number deserves scrutiny. Not all domains are candidates for tokenisation. A significant portion are:

• ›Parked or undeveloped — held for traffic monetisation with no active use, and these are precisely the domains most threatened by AI search (see Vector #3 below)
• ›Defensive registrations — brands protecting variations of their names, with no intent to trade
• ›Corporate-managed — held by enterprises with no interest in blockchain infrastructure or on-chain trading
• ›Expired or churning — domains that won't be renewed

A more realistic addressable market for tokenisation might be the actively traded segment: roughly 5–10 million domains change hands annually through aftermarket channels, plus an unknown number of premium brandable domains held by investors who would benefit from on-chain liquidity. Even this conservative subset represents a market orders of magnitude larger than Doma's current 107,000.

The domain aftermarket — the secondary market where previously registered domains change hands — has existed for about 30 years. Annual volume is estimated at $2–4 billion according to partial data from DN Journal, Escrow.com, and Sedo, though no single source captures the full market. The mechanics of buying and selling domains haven't meaningfully changed in that entire time.

InterNetX turns these numbers from abstract TAM into a concrete distribution channel. InterNetX doesn't primarily serve individual domain buyers — it's a B2B registrar serving resellers, hosting companies, and enterprise clients. One integration from InterNetX doesn't add one registrar to Doma's ecosystem. It potentially adds their entire downstream partner network. Thousands of resellers could offer tokenised domains to their customers through InterNetX's infrastructure.

This cascade effect is invisible if you only think about consumer-facing adoption. But it's how enterprise infrastructure actually scales.

What this means for you: The gap between 107,000 tokenised domains and even a conservative addressable market of several million is enormous. We're at the very beginning of on-chain domain infrastructure. Early participants are positioning themselves before the cascade adoption from enterprise registrars kicks in — though "early" also means "before key risks are fully resolved" (see the risks section below).

Most analysis I've seen treats AI's impact on domains as a single story: either "AI kills domains" or "AI boosts domains." Elias gave me the most honest and nuanced framework of any guest in this series. He split AI's impact into three distinct vectors — two that create demand and one that threatens it.

Let me walk through each one, and then address the timing differences between them.

Autonomous AI agents are proliferating. They book flights, conduct research, manage customer service, execute trades. Each of these agents needs a persistent, verifiable identity on the internet — a way for other agents and humans to know who they're interacting with.

Domain names are one option for this identity layer — and they have specific advantages. They're human-readable, globally unique, and universally resolvable through DNS without special software. But they're not the only option. Competing identity systems for AI agents include:

• ›W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) — a W3C standard for self-sovereign identity that doesn't require DNS at all
• ›API keys and OAuth tokens — the current default for machine-to-machine authentication
• ›X.509 certificates — the PKI infrastructure already used for TLS/SSL

DNS-based identity has advantages over these alternatives: universal resolvability without special software, human readability (useful for audit and trust), and existing trust infrastructure built over decades. But it also has disadvantages: centralised root authority, annual renewal costs, and registrar dependency. The outcome of this competition isn't predetermined.

The concept Elias described — an Agent Name Service — uses domains as identity anchors for AI agents. Think about it this way: every business needs a domain. As AI agents multiply — potentially into the millions — each one operating autonomously may need its own identity anchor. That's an entirely new demand category that didn't exist 18 months ago. It doesn't replace human domain use. It extends the concept of domain identity to non-human actors.

As of April 2026, Agent Name Service remains pre-standard: no RFC, no dominant protocol, no production deployments at scale. Treat this as a thesis, not a trend. But the infrastructure — particularly tokenised domains on a programmable blockchain like Doma — is precisely what could underpin it. If an AI agent's identity is represented by a domain, and that domain is tokenised, the agent's identity becomes programmable, transferable, and verifiable on-chain.

What this means for you: If you're accumulating domains, consider that future buyers might not be humans or businesses — they might be AI agents needing identity anchors. Generic, descriptive names could take on entirely new value as agent identities. But don't over-invest in this thesis until standards emerge — it's the longest-horizon vector in this framework.

Vibe coding — using AI tools like Cursor, Copilot, or Replit Agent to build web projects with minimal traditional programming skill — is the demand vector that's easiest to see in real-time. Builders in public communities are shipping functional web apps in a weekend using natural-language prompts and AI pair-programming tools — Replit alone has reported millions of projects created on its platform, and the pace is accelerating.

Each new project needs a domain.

This pattern isn't new. When Squarespace and Wix made it possible for non-developers to build websites in the 2010s, domain registrations surged. AI drops the barrier even further. A weekend hobbyist with a Cursor subscription and an idea can go from concept to deployed project in hours. Every one of those projects needs an address on the internet.

The scale potential here is significant. Previously, web project creation was bottlenecked by technical skill. That bottleneck is dissolving. The demographic of potential domain registrants just expanded from "people who can code or afford to hire developers" to "anyone with an idea and access to AI tools."

What this means for you: If you're registering domains speculatively, think about what vibe coders will build. Short, brandable names for niche projects — the kinds of two-word combinations that Richard Lau advises beginners to focus on — could see increased demand from this new wave of builders.

The threat side of Elias's framework is real and shouldn't be hand-waved away. AI-powered search — Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT with browsing — provides direct answers to queries without requiring users to click through to websites.

This directly impacts what the domain industry calls type-in traffic: users who navigate to a domain directly or click through search results. Domains that are monetised via traffic — particularly parked domains (undeveloped domains displaying ads to earn passive revenue) — face genuine pressure as AI search siphons away visits.

But here's why this isn't a death sentence for domain value:

• ›Brands still need identity anchors — Nike.com needs to exist regardless of how people search
• ›AI agents need domain-based identities (Vector #1), creating offsetting demand
• ›Direct customer relationships (email, accounts, services) still require a domain
• ›Trust signals matter — consumers still verify businesses through their web presence
• ›The domains most threatened are passive traffic-monetisation plays, not actively used brand properties

The net effect: aggregate domain demand shifts from traffic-monetisation plays toward active brand and identity use cases, rather than declining overall. Domains valued purely for search traffic face headwinds. Domains valued as brand identities, agent anchors, or active web properties do not.

The critical timing detail most people miss: these three vectors operate on completely different timescales. Vibe coding is driving new registrations right now. AI search reducing direct traffic is a medium-term shift playing out over the next one to three years. Agent Name Service is early-stage — the concept is forming, but standards are still being written. Smart strategy accounts for these timing differences instead of treating "AI impact" as one event.

What this means for you: If you're holding domains purely as traffic plays — banking on visitors typing them in or clicking from search — reassess. If your domains are brandable names that businesses or agents would actively want to own, the AI search threat matters much less.

No credible guide can present a new protocol without covering what can go wrong. Here are the risks and open questions you should weigh before tokenising domains on Doma or any similar protocol.

Smart Contract and Bridge Risk

Doma is a Layer 2 blockchain. Your DOTs and DSTs exist as smart contracts on this chain. Smart contracts can contain bugs, and L2 bridges (which connect the L2 to Ethereum's main chain) have historically been targets for exploits. While the OP Stack is battle-tested through Optimism's mainnet, Doma's specific implementation — including any custom contracts for domain tokenisation — carries its own risk profile. If a critical vulnerability were exploited, token holdings could be affected.

Registrar De-Integration Risk

The entire Doma model depends on registrars honouring on-chain signals. If a registrar de-integrates from Doma — due to business failure, regulatory pressure, a strategic pivot, or a contractual dispute — your DOTs and DSTs could become disconnected from the actual domain at the ICANN/registrar level. You'd hold tokens with no corresponding registrar backing. There is currently no public information about what contractual protections exist for token holders in a de-integration scenario.

Legal Ambiguity: DOTs vs ICANN Registrant Status

As discussed above, holding DOTs is not automatically equivalent to legal ownership in all jurisdictions. If a DOT holder and the WHOIS registrant disagree about who owns a domain, the outcome depends on the jurisdiction, the registrar's policies, and potentially ICANN's own dispute resolution processes. No court has yet ruled on the legal status of domain ownership tokens. Until case law develops, this remains an area of genuine legal uncertainty.

UDRP and Tokenised Domains

If a UDRP panel orders a domain transfer, the registrar is obligated to comply — regardless of who holds DOTs on-chain. It is unclear how the on-chain token transfer would be enforced in this scenario, or whether DOT holders would have any recourse.

Regulatory Risk: Securities Classification of Fractionalised Tokens

Fractionalised DOTs — where multiple holders each own a share of a domain's ownership tokens — look structurally similar to securities or collective investment schemes. If regulators (see UK section below) classify fractionalised domain tokens as regulated financial instruments, trading them on the Doma marketplace without appropriate licensing could expose both the platform and individual token holders to legal liability.

ICANN Objection Risk

ICANN has not publicly endorsed or objected to registrars delegating ownership signals to a blockchain. It's possible that ICANN could, in the future, issue guidance or policy changes that restrict registrars from linking registrant status to on-chain tokens. This would fundamentally undermine the Doma model.

Protocol Governance Risk

Doma is a specific blockchain with its own governance and upgrade authority. Protocol upgrades, fee changes, or governance disputes could affect all tokenised domains on the network. Unlike ICANN — which has a multi-stakeholder governance model developed over decades — Doma's governance structures are relatively new and less tested.

What this means for you: Tokenising domains on Doma offers genuine advantages in liquidity and programmability, but it also introduces new categories of risk that don't exist in the traditional domain system. Don't tokenise assets you can't afford to have disrupted while these risks remain unresolved. Diversify across tokenised and traditionally-held domains.

If you're based in the UK or subject to UK regulation, there are specific considerations that apply to tokenised domain activity on Doma.

FCA and Fractionalised Domain Tokens

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been increasingly explicit that tokenisation of real-world assets can bring tokens within the regulatory perimeter. Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), fractionalised DOTs — where multiple holders each own a share of a domain's value — could potentially be classified as:

• ›Security tokens — if they represent rights similar to shares or debt instruments
• ›Units in a collective investment scheme (CIS) — if the arrangement involves pooled contributions and profits from a shared asset managed by a third party

The FCA's guidance on cryptoassets (PS19/22 and subsequent publications) draws a distinction between exchange tokens, utility tokens, and security tokens. Fractionalised domain tokens don't fit neatly into existing categories, which is itself a risk — regulatory uncertainty means the classification could change.

Practical implication: If you're considering fractionalising a domain or buying fractionalised DOTs, seek legal advice on whether the arrangement constitutes a regulated activity under FSMA. Operating a collective investment scheme without FCA authorisation is a criminal offence in the UK.

HMRC Tax Treatment of Tokenised Domain Transactions

HMRC's cryptoasset guidance (CRYPTO61000 and subsequent manual updates) treats tokens representing assets as subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on disposal. Tokenising a domain, trading DOTs, and even swapping DOTs for other tokens are all potentially taxable events.

Key points for UK domain holders:

• ›Tokenisation itself may not trigger a CGT event if you're tokenising your own domain (no change in beneficial ownership), but this is not explicitly confirmed in HMRC guidance — take professional advice
• ›Selling DOTs is a disposal for CGT purposes. The gain is calculated as sale proceeds minus allowable costs (registration fees, tokenisation costs, gas fees)
• ›Fractionalised token sales are disposals. If you sell 50% of a domain's DOTs, you're disposing of 50% of the asset
• ›The annual CGT allowance (£3,000 for 2025-26) applies, but active domain traders could easily exceed this
• ›Record-keeping is essential — HMRC expects you to track every transaction, including gas fees

Use a tool like Koinly or our free CGT calculator to track your tokenised domain transactions from day one. Retroactive reconstruction of on-chain transaction history is possible but painful.

What this means for you: Don't treat tokenised domain trading as a tax-free activity. Every trade, fractionalization sale, and token swap may create a tax liability. If in doubt, consult a UK tax adviser familiar with cryptoassets before your first transaction.

This section addresses the most important question for anyone buying or selling tokenised domains: who legally owns the domain?

The ICANN Layer

Under ICANN's system, the registrant (the entity or person listed in WHOIS/RDAP records via the registrar) is the recognised owner of a domain. The Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) governs the relationship between ICANN, registrars, and registrants. This agreement makes no reference to blockchain tokens.

When a domain is tokenised on Doma, the registrar links DOT ownership to registrant status. If DOTs transfer to a new wallet, the registrar is supposed to update the WHOIS registrant record accordingly. But this linkage is a feature of the registrar's integration with Doma — it is not a feature of ICANN policy or the RAA.

The UK Legal Layer

Under English law, domain names are generally treated as contractual rights (the right to use a name under a registrar agreement) rather than property rights in the traditional sense. There is limited UK case law on domain name ownership, and none on tokenised domain ownership.

If a dispute arises between a DOT holder and a WHOIS registrant (e.g., if the registrar's system fails to update WHOIS after an on-chain transfer), the outcome would likely depend on:

• ›The terms of the registrar agreement
• ›Whether the DOT transfer constitutes a valid assignment of the contractual rights
• ›Which jurisdiction's law governs the dispute
• ›Whether the court recognises the on-chain record as evidence of intent to transfer

There is no established legal precedent for any of this in the UK. The Jurisdiction Taskforce of the LawTech Delivery Panel published a legal statement in 2019 recognising that cryptoassets can be treated as property under English law — but this general principle has not been tested specifically for domain ownership tokens.

What this means for you: If you're buying DOTs on the Doma marketplace, you are acquiring on-chain ownership that the registrar should honour — but your legal protection depends on the registrar's continued operation and compliance. For high-value domain acquisitions, consider whether additional legal documentation (a sale agreement alongside the on-chain transfer) would provide more robust legal protection. Consult a solicitor experienced in both domain law and digital assets.

Six registrar partners are named and operational on Doma: NicNames, InterNetX, EnCirca, Rumahweb, ConnectReseller, and Interstellar. The diversity here tells a story.

• ›NicNames is the #1 tokenisation registrar by volume on Doma, led by Andriy Khvetkevych (25+ years in the industry). They offer custodial wallet support for users new to Web3 and free domain promotions on .fun and .xyz extensions — low-friction entry points for beginners
• ›InterNetX brings enterprise-scale distribution through the IONOS Group. Their B2B model means downstream resellers and hosting companies can offer tokenised domains without building their own blockchain integration
• ›EnCirca, founded by Tom Barrett in 2001, is ICANN-accredited and specialises in high-trust regulated TLDs like .bank, .pharmacy, and .post. Tom has called Doma "the first Web3 naming approach capable of going mainstream" — because it works inside the ICANN root
• ›Rumahweb and ConnectReseller extend the ecosystem into Southeast Asian and Indian markets, respectively
• ›Interstellar adds another access point to the growing network

This isn't a single registrar experiment. It's a multi-registrar ecosystem spanning different regions, different customer segments, and different specialisations — all sharing the same on-chain infrastructure. Every domain tokenised by any partner adds liquidity and visibility for every other partner.

What this means for you: You have choices. If you want a guided, Web3-friendly onboarding experience, NicNames offers custodial wallets and free domain promos. If you're an enterprise client working with hosting resellers, InterNetX's integration may surface tokenisation options through your existing provider. If you need a regulated TLD, EnCirca specialises in exactly that.

The barrier to entry has never been lower. NicNames offers free domains on .fun and .xyz extensions. You can explore the Doma ecosystem at https://app.doma.xyz/join/4urmvv4ouvvsu. You don't need to be a crypto expert or a domain industry veteran to get started.

Here's the practical path I'd recommend based on everything I've learned across these interviews:

1. Start with a free domain through NicNames (.fun or .xyz) — this removes any financial risk from your first experience with tokenisation

2. Set up a wallet — NicNames offers custodial wallet support if you're new to Web3, which means they manage the keys for you while you learn the mechanics

3. Tokenise and explore — see your DOTs and DSTs, understand what each represents, browse the Doma marketplace to understand pricing dynamics. Remember: your DOTs represent on-chain ownership linked to the registrar's WHOIS records — not automatically equivalent to legal title in all jurisdictions

4. Understand the costs — ask your registrar about tokenisation fees, check current L2 gas costs on the Doma explorer, and factor in any marketplace or protocol fees before trading

5. Track everything from day one — domain flips, even tokenised ones, may trigger capital gains tax. In the UK, HMRC treats this like any other asset disposal. Use a tool like Koinly or our free CGT calculator to stay ahead of this

6. Protect your assets as they grow — once your domain portfolio carries meaningful value, storing your DOTs and DSTs on a hardware wallet like a Ledger is essential. Lose your keys and you lose access to your on-chain domain tokens

7. Read the risks section above — tokenised domains carry risks that traditional domains don't. Smart contract vulnerabilities, registrar de-integration, and regulatory uncertainty are all real. Don't tokenise assets you can't afford to have disrupted

If you want to go beyond holding and start domain investing, Richard Lau's advice from an earlier conversation in this series remains the best beginner framework: focus on two-word branded names (think MikesLandscaping.com), buy for ~$10, flip for ~$30, and contact businesses with inferior names to make your own market.

Elias's AI framework adds a strategic layer to that advice. The domains that will gain value aren't just the ones humans want — they're the ones AI agents might need, the ones vibe coders will want for their weekend projects, and the ones that carry brand trust beyond what any search engine can replace.

While your tokenised domains sit in your wallet, your other crypto doesn't have to sit idle — use our staking calculator to see what your ETH or stablecoin holdings could earn alongside your domain portfolio.

• ›Enterprise registrars validate Doma's platform model — InterNetX (IONOS Group, millions of domains) chose shared infrastructure over vendor lock-in, though the platform model concentrates some risks in Doma's governance and chain operations
• ›DNS-compliant tokenisation sidesteps the ENS/Handshake cold-start problem — ~360M ICANN domains (per Verisign Q3 2025) already work everywhere, though the realistic addressable market for tokenisation is a subset of this figure
• ›AI creates two new domain demand vectors while threatening one — agent identity (pre-standard) and vibe coding (active now) versus AI search bypass (medium-term)
• ›Only ~0.03% of global domains are tokenised — the gap between current adoption and even modest penetration is enormous
• ›DOT ownership and ICANN registrant status are linked but not legally identical — understand this distinction before making purchasing decisions
• ›UK readers: tokenised domain trades likely trigger CGT, and fractionalised tokens may engage FCA/FSMA regulation — seek professional advice
• ›Risks are real — smart contract bugs, registrar de-integration, legal ambiguity, regulatory classification, and protocol governance are all open questions
• ›Start free through NicNames, explore at app.doma.xyz — track taxes and secure your wallet from day one