From a $70 Million Sky-High Transaction to a First-Day Crash: The "Amateur" Debut of ai.com
- Core Viewpoint: Kris Marszalek, Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, purchased the premium domain ai.com for a staggering $70 million, setting a publicly disclosed record for a domain name transaction. This move not only demonstrates the substantial financial power of individuals in the cryptocurrency industry but also reflects their strategic intent to drive business mainstream adoption and enhance brand recognition.
- Key Elements:
- The transaction amount reached $70 million, paid in cryptocurrency, setting one of the highest publicly disclosed domain sale records to date—double the price of the previously sold voice.com.
- Buyer Kris Marszalek stated he has received higher offers but chose to hold, believing the domain is crucial for future business trust and recognition. He plans to use it for an AI Agent platform.
- The website experienced downtime less than 48 hours after going live, raising market concerns about its technical stability. The site is now restored and allows subdomain registration.
- This transaction is a typical case of high-profile investments by cryptocurrency industry figures seeking pathways to mainstream adoption. Similar operations include purchasing luxury real estate, investing in diversified industries, and acquiring power generation stations.
Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)
Last weekend, besides the "Bithumb airdrops 620,000 BTC" hoax, another piece of news that broke into mainstream circles sparked heated discussion: the mysterious buyer behind the premium domain ai.com was finally revealed. Contrary to many expectations, the buyer was not from an AI giant, but Kris Marszalek, the co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.
This transaction, finalized in April 2025, amounted to a staggering $70 million, giving the outside world a direct glimpse into the astonishing financial power of crypto moguls. This deal not only ended the ownership battle surrounding the domain but also drew a final line under the previous "premium domain redirection war" among giants like OpenAI and xAI.
The Battle for ai.com: A Three-Year, Sky-High Price Tag Transaction War
In November 2022, following the explosive debut of ChatGPT (GPT 3.5), AI became the dominant field of the era, and the prices of related domains naturally soared.
In February 2023, rumors circulated that OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT, had purchased ai.com. Later, this news was confirmed to be false. However, the domain's listed sale price of $11 million in 2021 was still jaw-dropping.
In August 2023, the ai.com domain was redirected to xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, which again attracted significant attention.
Since then, more information about this premium domain has been unearthed: it was first registered in May 1993, making it over 30 years old, a truly historic domain. However, Musk's indifference to the matter made the market realize once again that changing the domain's redirection was merely a marketing tactic by the ai.com domain holder to "wait for the right price."
When it reappeared in the public eye recently, it was with the news of being "sold for a whopping $70 million."
Public information shows that Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek successfully acquired this premium domain, setting one of the highest publicly disclosed domain transaction records to date. The deal was facilitated by domain broker Larry Fischer, and the payment method was cryptocurrency. For reference, this astronomical price is twice the sale price of the previous premium domain voice.com.
As a veteran crypto exchange founded in 2016, Crypto.com has long been renowned in the industry for its "massive marketing moves," previously promoting itself through sports sponsorships and celebrity endorsements. In 2021, it even splurged $700 million just to secure the naming rights for a sports stadium in Los Angeles.
In an interview with the media, Kris Marszalek revealed that he had "received even more outrageous resale offers but chose to hold onto the domain" because he believes it will be crucial for the trust and recognition of future business. Not only that, he boldly declared: "Back then, we fought our way out from among thousands of crypto exchanges; this time, we will make ai.com a success again."
Thus, the multi-year transaction war surrounding the premium domain ai.com came to an end. Just as the market was anticipating and speculating on how Kris Marszalek would use this domain, he unexpectedly "pulled off a big one."
The Botched "Product Launch": ai.com Went Down Within 48 Hours of Going Live
Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek posted that he had been quietly building after buying the domain and would launch the product during the Super Bowl on Sunday (February 8th). He later stated that with the AI Agent on the ai.com platform, users would soon be able to deploy their own agents to perform a series of actions on their behalf, such as stock trading, automating workflows, and using calendars to schedule and execute daily tasks—all while maintaining privacy, based on user permissions, and entirely under user control.
Amidst great anticipation, ai.com staged a "downtime drama" within less than 48 hours of going live.
This morning, NVIDIA engineer yuhang posted, "This $70m domain, after $8m in advertising (Odaily note: typical price for a Super Bowl ad), is now showing 504."
It must be said that this incident once again proves the saying—"the whole world is just a slightly larger makeshift operation."
As of the time of writing, the ai.com website has been restored. Users can now pre-register for personal subdomains and AI Agent subdomains to facilitate future experience of the platform's corresponding features. As for whether it can achieve the "autonomous AI Agent" promised in Kris Marszalek's grand vision, the author will reserve judgment for now.
The "Mainstreaming Paths" of Crypto Moguls: Some Buy Houses, Others Buy Power Plants
Another hot topic sparked by Crypto.com co-founder and CEO spending $70 million on a premium domain is the various mainstreaming paths crypto moguls choose for themselves.
Previously, there was Justin Sun spending millions on a lunch with Warren Buffett. Recently, the moves by crypto moguls have become more diverse:
Aave founder Stani Kulechov purchased a £22 million (approximately $30 million) mansion in London's Notting Hill last November.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino focuses more on "not putting all eggs in one basket." Reliable sources indicate that Tether has invested profits from its stablecoin business into 140 investments spanning agriculture to sports and plans to expand its workforce to 450 people. Furthermore, Tether's gold reserves have exceeded $23 billion.
Last November, Justin Sun, through his family office SunFund Energy, acquired two small hydropower plants in Norway in one go, with a total installed capacity of 86 MW and an annual power generation of about 350 GWh, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 40,000 European households. In the era of the AI great voyage, the ever-bold Justin Sun chose to board this era's train by holding a "power ticket."
Regardless of the investment outcomes, cryptocurrency is becoming known to more people through various news stories as a payment method, a character symbol, an asset class, and other forms. Perhaps, this is also an indispensable part of cryptocurrency's journey towards mainstream adoption.
