Why today’s valuations are historically unnatural — and why they won’t last
For 30 years, the domain aftermarket has behaved like a frontier economy: uneven pricing, emotional buying, inconsistent data, and unpredictable spikes.
But beneath the surface, something deeper has been building — something irreversible.
The structure of the market has changed.
The pricing has not caught up.
1. The silent collapse of premium supply
From 2020–2024, thousands of strong domains disappeared from public circulation.
They were absorbed by:
- AI startups
- fintech builders
- private equity consolidators
- long-term investors
- enterprise rebranding cycles
These names are not coming back.
Quality .com supply is shrinking — permanently.
This has only one historical parallel:
Manhattan real estate before the skyscraper boom.
A finite landscape entering infinite demand.
2. The demand curve is bending upward
We are entering a new era where:
- one-person companies need authority
- consultants need trust signals
- AI agents need clean, memorable identities
- specialized firms need sovereignty on the web
A domain is not a label anymore.
It is a positioning weapon.
It signals:
- legitimacy
- stability
- direction
- seriousness
You can fake almost everything else.
You cannot fake your name.
3. The mispricing gap
Despite these structural changes, the aftermarket still trades at valuations shaped by the 2015–2020 world — a world that no longer exists.
Markets lag reality; they always do.
Then they correct in one sharp movement.
Expect a multi-year repricing of quality names — not hype, but convergence to fundamentals.
4. The winners of the next cycle
The names that will appreciate the most are those with:
- financial authority
- AI resonance
- short symbolic density
- ancient-root semantics (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit)
- clear industry direction
- sound, heavy phonetics
- .com sovereignty
These names become anchors in an era of instability.
5. What founders and investors should understand
A premium domain is not a cost.
It is:
- an asset
- a moat
- a reputational firewall
- a compression of meaning
- a proof of intention
The next 12–24 months will be the last window where the gap between value and price is still wide enough to exploit.
Once the market reprices, this window closes.
