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The
Lowdown
June 2026 Archive
Welcome to the
The Lowdown from
DN Journal - your source for notable news and information from all
corners of the global domain name industry!
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher
Ron Jackson.
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New
One Stop Domain Management Shop DigitalCandy
Arrives With an All-Pro Team of Industry Veterans
Behind the Wheel |
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The
domain industry continues to be fertile ground
for new enterprises, especially ones that can hit
the ground running because they were built by
seasoned hands who already know the business
inside out. Such is the case with newly launched DigitalCandy.com,
a project that veteran domain attorney and serial
entrepreneur Stevan Lieberman has had in
mind for years now. As one of the busiest
attorneys in the business (since 1996) and
already operating other businesses, including Escrow.Domains,
Stevan waited impatiently but undeterred until two
things happened. AI advances made it
possible to get more done every day and -
most importantly - he found the right people
to help make what he envisioned - a new registrar
and domain management platform - a reality. |
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The
industry veterans behind DigitalCandy, a
newly
launched one-stop shop designed to meet
every domain owner/investor need.
(L to R): Stevan Leiberman,
Kevin Kopas
and Mike St. John. |
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They say there is no substitute for
experience and the DigitalCandy team has that in
spades - a situation that gives them an edge not
only in expertise but in the invaluable
relationships they have made throughout the
global industry over the years. As I mentioned,
Stevan has been at it for 30 years now, tech whiz Mike
St. John has been carrying out critical CTO
duties for over 20 years and Kevin Kopas,
even as the "kid" in the group, is known
worldwide after spending 12 years with some
of the best companies in the business in Radix,
Public Interest Registry (.ORG), Short Dot (as
Co-Founder) and now, as Vice President - Domains for
Stevan's venerable law firm, Washington, D.C. based Greenberg
& Lieberman LLC. With a new round of
gTLDs about to open up, Kevin's expertise in
that area adds mightily to the company's arsenal.
Once you know the players behind this
"new" entry in the highly
competitive domain services arena, it is easy
to understand how they are able to provide
such a wide array of services under one roof.
Those include domain registration, sales and
escrow services (with an aftermarket platform
on the road map) and AI-powered
intelligence that Mike noted "doesn't just
search—it thinks so it can provide domain suggestions
based on your intent, instant valuations backed by market
data and portfolio insights. They've also built Enterprise Controls for teams that manage serious domain portfolios.
Those include role-based access, fine-grained permissions, bulk operations, and a full API for
automation. They also promise Transparent Pricing
on all services - no tricks, no upsells, no
inscrutable "processing fees." |
Image
from Bigstock |
While experience is obviously a huge
differentiator for DigitalCandy, Mike St, John
thinks the company's AI tools may be an even
bigger one. Mike told us "You can switch to the
AI mode and ask questions about your portfolio.
For instance, if you have a domain you like but
aren't sure how best to use it - just ask. It will
give you an opinion - like maybe you should develop
it and here are some great ideas for what you
could do with it (especially since AI makes
development a lot easier now). You can ask it for a six-month
ramp-up to profitability if you want. Until you
use it you really won't understand just how good
and how in-depth it gets." Stevan added, "We've built a full
ecosystem of tools that all talk to each
other, so the AI will work across the board on
all products. Very few people have recently
built a new architecture and new systems, for
a registrar, for a sales platform - and yeah,
there's going to be a sales platform as part of
this. You look at all the big players out there and
they built their software decades ago." 
Stevan
Lieberman has been a featured speaker at major
domain conferences for decades.
Here he is providing contract advice at the 2022 NamesCon
Global conference in Austin, Texas. "There's other types of digital assets
that are out there," Stevan continued,
"and over time we're going to add in those
additional types of digital assets, be it patents,
trademarks, etc. So it's designed for something
that's a bit more expansive than just the domain
industry - and that's the best thing about the
ecosystem is it all crosses over.
Digital Candy can instantly tell you if any of your
domains are likely trademark infringing, so can keep
a cleaner portfolio. Or it can do that on the
registration as well - think twice before
you hit this button kind of thing. That's
usually research you've got to do all on your own.
This is also a tool that can help you sell it
by finding potential buyers. We're also thinking of
adding a few broker pieces in there. Many
people don't know how to move a name. For them why
not get a broker involved who could get it sold for
you?" In conclusion, Stevan noted what an exciting
time it has become in our industry with rapid
fire advances coming at us almost every day. "AI
is allowing people to move their companies
forward and their new ideas forward a lot more
quickly than they ever could before," he
noted. "The number of patent searches we've
done has almost doubled just in the last two
years and it's really all due to AI. It's a whole
new world and it never sits still!"
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(Posted
June 30, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0630.htm
*****
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Digital
Asset Investors to Get New Option When Castello
Brothers Add Fractional Domain Ownership to
Smoothie.com Mix July 1st |
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For
years now, people have been talking about the
possibility of "fractional" domain
ownership that would open the door to
investment in top tier digital assets that would otherwise
be beyond their financial reach. While the
idea has obvious appeal on the surface, it has
also raised a lot of questions, including who
maintains control of the fractionalized asset, who
decides when or if it will be sold to realize
gains, how can shares (in this case, tokens) in
the name be bought and sold? Well,
we are about to get answers to a lot of those
questions and they will come from a decision
made by two of the most widely-known and respected
veterans of the traditional domain investment
space - The Castello
Brothers - Michael and David
- who founded Castello
Cities Internet Network in 1998
(20 years ago, Michael and David were profiled in
a 2006 DNJournal
Cover Story). On
Wednesday, July 1, their category-defining
one-word .com domain - Smoothie.com
- will transition to fractionalized ownership
through the the groundbreaking Doma
Protocol for domain tokenization developed
by D3
in what will be the first major test of this
ownership model. David Castello noted, "Smoothie.com
is the exact-match category name for the global
smoothie industry, a market valued in the tens
of billions of dollars annually. The domain
has long been recognized as one of the most
valuable and memorable digital brands within the
health, nutrition, beverage, and wellness
sectors." |
Michael
Castello & David Castello
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The
Castello brothers believe tokenization of premium
domains has the potential to fuel an expansion of
the broader digital asset market - much in the
at that real estate investment trusts (REITs)
transformed access to commercial property ownership.
"The Internet has created immense value over
the last thirty years, but ownership of its most
valuable locations has remained concentrated,”
David said. “This is about opening access to a
new generation of investors who understand that
digital real estate is becoming just as important as
physical real estate.” The
domain aftermarket has produced some jaw-dropping
sales that underscored the immense value of top tier
domains, including the $70 million sale of
AI.com last year, as well as those of Chat.com ($15
million), Gold.com ($8.5 million),
Rocket.com ($14 million). The Castello
Brothers can point to their own multi-million dollar
sales as well, including Whisky.com at $3.1
million. Those interested in the Smoothie.com offering and
what it entails can register now, ahead of the July
1 public launch, by visiting the $SMOOTHIE.COM
token listing page on Doma. As
for the questions posted in the opening paragraph,
to give you more information on what the entire
process of tokenizing a domain involved for the
Castello Brothers - and what investors can expect
from a tokenized domain investment - we are putting
together a deeper dive into this story that will run
later this week.
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(Posted
June 29, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0629.htm
*****
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NamesCon
Global Adds New Perks Ahead of Ticket Price
Increase Friday Night - 2026 Domain Days Dubai
Event Postponed But Plans in Place for Prompt
Return |
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We have
good news and bad news on the domain conference
front. On the plus side, the 2026 NamesCon
Global conference, coming up November
11 & 12 in Miami, has some welcome
changes in store for attendees. Acting on feedback
from those who attended the landmark 2025
show, NamesCon organizers decided to
make a good thing even better in multiple ways.
Those include making food available on site at the
Ice Palace at no extra charge (food
trucks were the main option last year), onsite
parties so less traveling between venues,
access to a new NamesCon Domain Lounge,
plus additional lounge and meeting spaces that
will make it easier to get face to face business
done. Being in Miami, there are endless options
for activities and fun and NamesCon
is promising some pleasant surprises on that
front as well. |
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You can
get much
more information here on the networking
opportunities, social activities and special events
they have planned for you, including RightOfTheDot's
Live Digital Asset Auction and the much talked
about Beanstalk
Challenge Grand Finale. The
main thing you need to know right now is that
ticket prices will be going up Friday night
(June 26) at the stroke of midnight. If you are
planning to go, you can lock
in the lowest rate now - and be sure to
use our DNJ20 code at checkout to knock
20% (nearly $100) off the price! You
can also now book
discounted rooms at the official show
hotel, the Marriott Biscayne Bay. It didn't
take long for NamesCon's block of room to sell out
last year, so if that's where you want to be, this
is the time to secure your room.
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The unfortunate conference
news is the postponement of the 4th annual Domain
Days Dubai conference that was scheduled
to run October 14 & 15, 2026 in the
UAE. That of course, was the
unavoidable result of the current U.S.-Iran
conflict that has made it impossible to
finalize plans for a meeting that attracts
visitors from all over the world. In the three
years DDD has been held, culminating with the 2025
show last October, DDD Founder Munir
Badr and his team have completely wowed
attendees and turned the conference into one
of the most highly anticipated events on
the global calendar. |
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When
life returns to normal in the region, you can
bet DDD will be back without missing
a step - in fact, with preparations for each
show already a year-around project - I
would bet stronger than ever given some
extra time to prepare. Munir is monitoring the
situation closely and expects to be able to
announce new dates in the not too distant
future. |
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(Posted
June 23, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0623.htm
*****
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Inside
the 2026 InterNetX
Domain Summit in Berlin - Big Changes Are
Happening Now But Industry Leaders Had Their
Eyes on Determining What Happens Next |
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Editor's
Note:
The annual InterNetX Domain Summit that was
held this year in Berlin on June 16 is a
very different kind of event than other meetings
on the industry calendar. Most are multi-day
affairs that anyone can attend and they offer
great value to all who come to network and hear
about the latest industry trends. The InterNetX
Summit is a one-day invitation-only
gathering that also brings together many of the
most forward-thinking leaders
but they come to this event with a focus beyond
the |
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current
environment,
looking instead to preparing for and shaping
what comes next. To get the best summary of
what happened in Berlin this week, we called on
someone who was in the middle of it and also
happens to be one of the most gifted writers in
the industry - InterNetX's Global Communications
Manager, Simone Catania. This is his
account of what the 2026 InterNetX Domain
Summit was all about:
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By Simone
Catania
When we welcomed registrars, registries,
investors and policy voices to Berlin's
Fotografiska on June 16, we weren't
setting out to host just another industry
meetup. We wanted to make a statement about where
our business is heading—and, frankly,
to put a stake in the ground about the
conversations we believe the domain world
needs to be having right now. We gathered
everyone under the banner "Digital
Metamorphosis" and built the day
around a question we can no longer postpone:
what happens to domains when machines, not
people, increasingly do the discovering?
For us, that
question isn't speculative—it's the work.
As domain experts, we see our role as
helping set the agenda for where the domain
industry goes, and the InterNetX Domain
Summit 2026 was the live expression of
that ambition: a room we built around three
words that ran like a current through the
day—Identity. Intelligence. Trust. |
Simone
Catania, InterNetX |
A
theme built for a turning point
"Digital
Metamorphosis" was more than a tagline for
us. We translated it into a thesis: that AI-driven
search, autonomous agents, decentralized identity,
domain tokenization and trust infrastructure are
collectively redefining what a domain is and
what it's worth. We opened the day by framing
that transformation not as a threat to the
addressable web but as an invitation to lead it—and
we carried that tone all the way through to the
closing remarks.
A
single thread ran through the whole day: as
intelligence and automation reshape the web, domains
matter more than ever as anchors of identity
and trust—exactly the metamorphosis we'd come to
discuss. Different stages and speakers, but one
consistent message: identity, intelligence and
trust are now inseparable from the value of a
domain. |
Turning
our vantage point into value
Convening
the conversation is only half of what we do. The same
conviction drives our flagship Global
Domain Report, the data-driven study we
publish each year with Sedo to give the entire
industry a clearer map of where the market is heading.
It's one of several ways we work to turn InterNetX's
vantage point into insight others can act on. Anyone
can describe the metamorphosis; we'd rather help the
industry navigate it.
A
direction, not just takeaways
We
didn't want anyone to leave Berlin with a tidy list of
takeaways and nothing to do with them. The reason we
asked these questions out loud—why domains, why
now—was to give the professionals in the room a
direction. If discovery is shifting from people to
machines, the work ahead is clear: the registrars,
registries and investors who treat domains as identity
and trust infrastructure, not just inventory, are the
ones who will define the next decade. Those who
wait for the metamorphosis to settle will be reacting
to a market others have already shaped.
InterNetX
CEO Elias Rendon Benger speaking at the 2026 Summit in
Berlin June 16.
That's
the future we intend to keep pressing on. The
discussions we opened at the Summit—about agent
discovery, decentralized identity, sovereignty and
trust—aren't a one-day agenda; they're the questions
that will shape our industry for years to come, and we
plan to keep them honest, open and a step ahead.
Berlin wasn't a conclusion. It was a direction—and we'd
rather help set it than wait to be told where domains
go next.
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(Posted
June 19, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0619.htm
*****
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Identity
Digital Releases New Research Centered on Domain
Investors - Who They Are, What They Are Buying and
Why |
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Identity
Digital®, the administrator of the
world's largest portfolio of top level domains
(nearly 300 TLDs in all), has just released the
results of an iin-depth research project*
(PDF file) on domain
investing and the wide range of buyers who have
turned domain names into a growing
alternative asset class. The ID report found that
"domain investing is particularly popular amongst
millennial investors, ages 30-44, seeking
accessible, digitally native avenues for long-term
growth" and noted "The investment landscape is growing
increasingly competitive, and domain names
have emerged as a differentiated path to value
creation."
According to their research, investors,
regardless of age, look to domain sales data, TLD
performance trends, and portfolio-tracking tools
to guide their decisions, pointing to a broader
demand for more sophisticated analytical
support, adding "Domain investors today
are taking a measured, data-driven approach to
portfolio building, accumulating with purpose,
holding with conviction, and selling when the
moment is right. The numbers tell a story of
patience: |
Image
from Bigstock
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-
Median portfolio size is approximately 100
domains
-
66% of investors surveyed purchase fewer than
100 domains annually
-
82% of investors surveyed sell fewer than 50
domains annually
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74% of investors surveyed hold domains for at
least one year
|
Matt Overman, Chief Revenue Officer at
Identity Digital, said “The modern internet
is offering new ways for domain investors to
track consumer behavior and potential
opportunities. Next-generation domain
extensions are starting to attract investor
attention, as creators, brands, and AI
continue to reshape the web and elevate
the importance of identity, trust, and
authenticity.”
"Investor interest is increasingly shaped
by industries and trends they believe will
drive demand, including extensions tied to
emerging technologies. The AI boom is
fueling particularly strong interest in .ai
domains, which have a 69% net-positive
investor sentiment score, while .io
domains reached 64%."
The research also reveals who is
investing. Millennial-aged investors now
represent the largest segment at 66%, with 49%
working in tech or related fields and 66%
maintaining full- or part-time careers outside
of domain investing. Recent
market data reinforces the trend
with alternative assets accounting for up
to 20% of millennials’ portfolios,
nearly double the share held by Gen X
and triple that of baby boomers.
|
Matt
Overman
CRO, Identity Digital |
The ID research also highlights the expanding
influence registries and registrars have on
investor behavior. When selecting a registrar,
investors’ top priorities are low domain renewal
fees, ease of portfolio management, and
accessibility of support teams. Registry marketing was found to play a
meaningful role as well. Notably, 67% of
investors surveyed say registry operators directly
impact their investment decisions, and 69%
say they are more likely to invest in a TLD when
they see active registry marketing, underscoring the
role that platform and promotional support play in
shaping where capital flows.
*Research Methodology
Research findings are based on a two-phase study
conducted in 2025 by Identity Digital, combining
qualitative interviews with domain industry experts
and a quantitative survey of 100+ domain investors. Identity
Digital regularly publishes research and analysis on
emerging domain trends, including insights on new
top-level domain (nTLD) adoption, on its newsroom.
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(Posted
June 17, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0617.htm
*****
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Why
Bargain Hunters Are Beating a Path to Mike
Sullivan's New NotRenewing.com Sales Platform for Expiring
Domains |
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In our
last post (about Notify.Domains)
we told you about a new platform that can help you
acquire specific domains, as well help you protect
the ones you already have. Today, on the flip side
of that coin, we want to let you know about
another new service that can help you get some
money back
on domains you don't want any
more. Like
Michael Cyger's Notify.Domains, NotRenewing.com
comes from an industry veteran - in this case, Mike Sullivan,
who, like Cyger, was looking for a solution to a
problem that has vexed practically all
professional domain investors since the business
began. That is how to take some of the pain out of
dropping domains you've given up on selling. When
they go they take most, if not all, of the
money you invested down the drain with
them. Mike,
who has been writing a popular domain industry blog - Sullys
Blog - since 1997 (30 years as
of next January), finally had enough and came up
with the idea for NotRenewing.com |
Mike
Sullivan
Founder, NotRenewing.com
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that
just
launched in March. It is a fixed-price sales
platform for expiring domains. To keep
things simple every name is priced buy it now at $99.
I'm no mathematician but that looks way better
than $0 to me. The best part for sellers is
it costs nothing to list up to 25 domains and
if any do sell, you get $90 for each one. The
only rule for standard listings is that the domain
has to be at least 24 months old and expiring within
12 months. There are also very affordable premium plans
that allow you to list younger names and far more
domains than the free level. So,
who is going to want domains that even you
don't think is worth the renewal fee? You know what
they say - one man's trash is another man's
treasure and NotRenewing,com already has a lot
of sales to prove it (dozens have sold this week
alone and some examples of recent sales are in the
screenshot below). 
Had I seen that SpiceOdyssey.com listing at
$99, I would have bought it immediately myself (I
see it has now been relisted for $3,999
elsewhere). Given
how much investors love to scan expiring domain
lists, NotRenewing.com will attract a steady stream
of bargain hunters, especially since the platform
gives you a shot at
picking up reasonably priced names before
they end up in the expired auction stream where a lot
more competitors will see them. It's a win-win proposition
for buyers and sellers alike. The
site currently supports 17 TLDs: .com, .net,
.org, .io, .ai, .co, .dev, .app, .xyz, .me, .cc, .tv,
.info, .biz, .us, .gg, and .sh. You can check out
the full Frequently Asked Questions page here.
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(Posted
June 12, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0612.htm
*****
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Michael
Cyger's New Notify.Domains Service Aims to Help
Move Investors to the Head of the Acquisition Line |
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Many of
the most valuable resources domain investors count
on daily were originally built by someone who was an
investor themselves - someone who needed
a solution that existing tools weren't
giving them. One of the
most successful of them all, Frank Schilling,
often said he built Uniregistry just to manage
his own legendary portfolio. What he envisioned
turned out so well he later opened it to everyone.
His registrar and marketplace met the needs of others
so well it exploded in popularity, so much so that
GoDaddy ended up buying the company in a
nine-figure deal. The
latest example of that "if you want something
done right, do it yourself" mentality comes
from Michael
Cyger, who has already founded
and sold his last two companies, Domain Academy
(a great domain education platform that, like
Uniregistry, went to GoDaddy) and the
popular domain media site, DomainSherpa,
that was acquired by MediaOptions and continues to
thrive. Now
Michael, with more time to concentrate on
investing since his last exit, has come across and
decided to fix another pain point that
was |
Michael
Cyger
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annoying
him to no end. The tool he created in that passion
project solved his problem so well, he, like Frank,
decided it was too good to keep to himself,
resulting in the recent launch of Notify.domains. "A
domain I'd been watching for years sold for a tiny
fraction of what it was worth because the owner
didn't know what they had, and I found out after it
was gone," Michael said. "Another just
quietly dropped and was registered before I ever
saw it. I built Notify.domains so it never
happens to me again and thought others would
like to have the same edge." To achieve that
Notify.domains continually monitors at least a half
dozen key areas for the first sign a domain is, or is
about to become available, including website signals
(including prolonged downtime or expired SSL
certificates, that can signal business struggles),
WHOIS and RDAP shifts, backorders, auctions, and
aftermarkets.
Veteran
investor Adam Strong wrote a testimonial for
Notify.domains about a situation that meant a
lot more to him than the dollar value of a
particular domain. Adam noted, “I've tracked
hundreds of domains and it's a super
tedious job and it's easy to miss something. For
the 17 years since my son was born, I tried
unsuccessfully to get his name. Within days of
signing up with Notify.domains, the service
alerted me the domain name was in auction
and I secured it. Notify.domains does the job
better than you can. Easy peasy.” I
can personally relate to that. Many years ago
I wanted ronjackson.com to use as a permanent
lifetime email address. It was owned by
someone else with the same name but they
repeatedly rejected my offers to buy it. Notify.domains
didn't exist back then so I manually kept
checking on the domain for five years before
it suddenly turned up in an expired name
auction and, like Adam, I was able to get
the domain, but could have so easily missed it
had I not been looking at auction lists on
that particular day. |
Image from Bigstock |
In
addition to being able to help you get early access
to domains you are interested in, Notify.domains
can help you protect what you already have by
keeping a constant eye on your own domains, so you
will find out right away if any changes have been
made to them that you did not authorize. At current
settings, Notify.domains checks each watched domain
25+ times per day. The
service comes with many additional
free tools including WHOIS and RDAP
data, DNS. email record checkers (SPF, DKIM, DMARC),
blacklists and domain renewal cost checkers
(especially useful now that many TLDs charge premium
prices not just for an initial registration but for
renewals too). The cost for the basic service starts
at $2 per domain monthly ($24 yearly) with volume
discounts up to 45% off starting at 250+ domains and
custom enterprise pricing for 500+. To check
out all of the details or test drive the service
yourself, visit Notify.domains
where you can see a demo or take advantage of their
free 7-day trial offer.
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|
(Posted
June 8, 2026) To refer others to the post
above only (and not the full Lowdown
column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2026/posts/0608.htm
*****
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If you've
been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive! |
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| We
need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]
with any interesting information you might have. If
possible, include the source of your information so we can
check it out (for example a URL if you read it in a forum
or on a site elsewhere). |
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