This week in domain intelligence:
- honeypot.com closed at $150,000 on Sedo, but mid-range depth was thin: after easyfi.com ($34K) and tav.com ($57.5K), the list dropped below $18K.
- .com ma7 declined to ~130K from ~140K the prior week, largely attributable to a transatlantic holiday overlap: US Memorial Day and European Whit Monday both fell on May 25.
- Five hot keywords showed steady four-week uptrends. “World” and “live” tie directly to the approaching World Cup (June 11); “casino” reflects broader gambling site provisioning; “data” posted the cleanest organic growth signal.
- Public Interest Registry raised .org wholesale pricing from $9.93 to $11.00, effective June 1, the first increase in roughly a decade.
Domain Trading Intelligence
Top Sales This Week
Compiled from publicly reported marketplace transactions and brokerage disclosures. Each entry is multi-source verified unless noted. Sales previously reported in our May 26 report are excluded.
| # | Domain | Price | Platform | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | honeypot.com | $150,000 | Sedo | May 27 |
| 2 | tav.com | $57,500 | GoDaddy | May 28 |
| 3 | easyfi.com | $34,000 | Sedo | May 27 |
| 4 | paxi.com | $17,721 | DropCatch | May 27 |
| 5 | scoretv.com | $16,268 | Sedo | May 27 |
| 6 | betzz.com | $15,211 | Dynadot | May 27 |
| 7 | trulend.com | $11,880 | Spaceship | May 26 |
| 8 | autobatterie.de | $11,620 | Sedo | May 27 |
| 9 | femaleintelligence.com | $5,988 | Afternic | May 26 |
| 10 | fitstudio.com | $5,250 | DropCatch | May 28 |
honeypot.com at $150K was a strong single-word .com result on Sedo. tav.com ($57.5K) and easyfi.com ($34K) rounded out the top three, but from #4 onward the list dropped below $18K.
Industry News
.org Wholesale Price Increase Takes Effect (June 1)
Public Interest Registry raised the .org wholesale price from $9.93 to $11.00, effective June 1, 2026. This is the first increase in roughly a decade. PIR has stated it has no further plans to raise prices at this time. For context, had the proposed 2019 sale of PIR to a private equity firm gone through, .org wholesale prices could be approaching $20/year today under the maximum allowed annual increases. Dynadot price update | Porkbun price tracker
Signal: honeypot.com at $150K was this week’s standout transaction. The .org price increase may prompt a wave of early renewals from cost-conscious holders.
Domain Registration Intelligence
Weekly Registration Overview
New domain registrations for the week of May 26 to June 1, 2026. Source: DomainKits Trends.
| TLD | Daily Avg (ma7) | Trend vs Prior Week |
|---|---|---|
| .com | ~129,621 | Down from ~140K (-7.4%), sharpest weekly decline this quarter |
| .org | ~8,752 | Down from ~9,300 (-5.9%) |
| .net | ~6,522 | Down from ~8,000 (Jun 1 data likely incomplete) |
| .xyz | ~7,397 | May 31 value; Jun 1 spike to 24K distorts ma7 |
.com registrations pulled back from the prior week’s ~140K to ~130K. The most likely driver is a transatlantic holiday overlap: US Memorial Day and European Whit Monday both fell on May 25, taking the two largest domain registration markets offline simultaneously. The shortened business week depressed Monday-Tuesday peaks to 138-142K (vs 157-161K the prior week). Using May 31 values to avoid June 1 reporting lag, the picture is .com at ~132K, .org at ~8,780, .net at ~7,634. .xyz saw a single-day spike to 24,639 on June 1 that distorts the ma7; the May 31 reading of ~7,400 is more representative.
Hot Keywords: Top 5 W-o-W Movers
High-volume keywords that showed sustained four-week registration growth (W1 through W4). The table displays weekly registration counts to reveal the trajectory rather than a single percentage.
| Keyword | W4 Regs | W1 | W2 | W3 | .com % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| casino | 6,225 | 2,604 | 3,042 | 4,866 | 43% |
| club | 4,216 | 3,583 | 3,770 | 4,079 | 66% |
| world | 3,682 | 2,788 | 3,312 | 3,468 | 64% |
| data | 3,240 | 2,227 | 2,455 | 2,567 | 52% |
| live | 3,234 | 2,134 | 2,496 | 2,751 | 61% |
Five keywords showed steady four-week uptrends this period. The quality metrics tell distinct stories.
Casino (W4=6,225) has the lowest .com ratio in the group (43%) and a near-zero for-sale rate (under 0.1%), meaning over half of registrations went to alternative TLDs. The near-zero for-sale rate (under 0.1%) suggests these registrations are intended for site deployment rather than resale. This profile is consistent with gambling site infrastructure provisioning. The link to the World Cup is indirect: operators typically bundle sports betting and casino games on the same platforms.
World (.com 64%, for-sale 0.18%) and live (.com 61%, for-sale 0.12%) connect more directly to the tournament, with NRDS showing World Cup branded names and streaming-related registrations.
Data (.com 52%, for-sale 0.38%) posted the cleanest organic signal: broadly distributed across registrars, with naming patterns tied to AI, analytics, and data infrastructure.
Club (.com 66%, for-sale 0.34%) rose steadily with the highest .com ratio in the group, consistent with organic community and membership site demand.
Emerging Keywords: Catalyst Verification
From this week’s emerging candidates, the gambling wave’s tail and a .lol registration cluster through Onamae (GMO), likely registrar-driven distribution, accounted for the majority of entries. Source: NRDS.
| Keyword | W3 → W4 | .com % | Top Registrar % | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| judi | 204 → 1,139 | 90% | 88% | Indonesian for “gambling”. Single operator (88% concentration). Weak signal. |
| nba | 186 → 688 | 35% | 58% | NBA Finals timing may contribute, but Onamae 58% and predominantly .lol registration mirrors the CJK-language cluster pattern above. Primarily .lol distribution. |
| esports | 96 → 304 | 90% | 77% | High .com ratio unusual for emerging keywords. Catalyst unidentified. Single registrar concentration. |
The emerging keyword landscape this week was shaped by tail-end gambling terms in Indonesian (judi, togel, hoki, dewa, raja, bandar) and a cluster of CJK-language keywords (wang, ban, guan, fang, xian, shou, zhibo) registered predominantly as .lol domains through Onamae (GMO), likely reflecting registrar-driven .lol distribution rather than independent demand. Neither pattern represents organic market signal. No strong clean catalyst emerged comparable to the prior week’s cockroach wave.
Signal: The gambling wave’s tail is tapering. Filtering out gambling and pinyin clusters, the underlying emerging keyword landscape was quiet this week.
Note: Emerging keyword data reflects observed registration trends and is provided for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to register any domain.
Premium Domain Intelligence
Notable premium .com movements this week, sourced from DomainKits Changes Monitor.
Notable Expirations
| Domain | Length | TLD Footprint | Previous Registrar | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| domore.com | 6L | 107 TLDs | SafeNames | Jun 1 |
| lank.com | 4L | 51 TLDs | Network Solutions | May 27 |
| qoin.com | 4L | 49 TLDs | Key-Systems | May 31 |
| artwell.com | 7L | 49 TLDs | Network Solutions | Jun 1 |
| somera.com | 6L | 35 TLDs | Network Solutions | Jun 2 |
New Registrations / Drop-Catches
| Domain | TLD Footprint | Caught By | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| vibepay.com | 28 TLDs | DropCatch | Jun 1 |
| artflex.com | 23 TLDs | DropCatch | May 29 |
| konova.com | 17 TLDs | DropCatch | May 26 |
| petarea.com | 8 TLDs | Gname | May 29 |
Worth Watching: Premium NS Changes
| Domain | TLD Footprint | Change | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| gx.com | 115 TLDs | GoDaddy DNS → Cloudflare, landing page updated | May 29 |
| main.com | 270 TLDs | Self-hosted NS → registrar defaults (MX retained, renewed to 2028) | May 26 |
Signal: Several names in the expiration pipeline (domore.com at 107 TLDs, qoin.com at 49 TLDs) still have time before they reach public auction; early positioning may be possible for those monitoring the deletion cycle. On the drop-catch side, artflex.com (23 TLDs) stands out as a clean compound brand that cleared the expiration process and was picked up by DropCatch. gx.com and main.com represent two ends of the premium NS change spectrum, one activating, one stepping back, and both are worth continued monitoring in the weeks ahead.
The domains highlighted above represent a fraction of what moves each week. DomainKits Changes Monitor tracks premium domain status changes as they happen, often days before a domain enters public auction or becomes available for registration. Early visibility into expiration and registration shifts can provide a meaningful head start.
Weekly Insight
A thin trading week (three sales above $30K, then a sharp drop below $18K) illustrates how dependent aftermarket volume remains on a small number of high-value transactions.
The World Cup’s registration footprint is visible in “world” and “live,” both of which posted four consecutive weeks of growth. The broader gambling keyword surge (casino, bet, slot) appears to reflect parallel infrastructure provisioning by operators who bundle sports betting and casino products on the same platforms. With the tournament starting June 11, this build may have one more week to run. The broader market dipped modestly, most likely due to the transatlantic holiday overlap on May 25.
The .org wholesale price increase to $11 is the first in a decade. Holders of large .org portfolios may want to reassess renewal economics now that the decade-long freeze has ended.
Data Sources: Sales data compiled from Sedo, GoDaddy Auctions, DropCatch, Dynadot, Spaceship, and Afternic. Registration and trend data: DomainKits. Domain changes: DomainKits Changes. For reference only, not investment advice.
Published by: ABTdomain