Trading names in a mind-boggling crypto craze

A new NFT trading craze where names are bought and sold for eye-popping sums is providing a multi-million-dollar lifeline for speculators shivering in the bleak crypto winter. “Domain” names such as coin.crypto (which has sold for $100,000) and beer.eth (which fetched $39,000) are a new breed of NFTs that owners can use to replace the jumble of 16 random numbers and letters that form their digital wallet addresses. Backers say these names could become valuable real estate in the years to come with the advent of Web3. “We have domain names starting at as little as $5, we’ve had some sell for as much as $100,000,” said Matthew Gould, CEO Unstoppable Domains, which sells names ending in .crypto, .nft and .wallet on its website.