Kenetic co-founder purchases .NFT domain extension for $84K

In a single purchase, Jehan Chu, co-founder of Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Kenetic Capital, has bought the ability to issue a seemingly unlimited number of "NFT" subdomains on the Handshake blockchain.

According to Kenetic, Chu purchased the .NFT domain extension for $84,000, or roughly 680,000 Handshake (HNS) tokens at the time, brokered through the Namebase marketplace. The crypto investor reportedly owns more than 1,300 Handshake domains. He said he bought the extension while observing a rising interest in nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, across the crypto ecosystem.

“I believe NFTs are the true missing link between online and offline objects, and will transform not only art, but also business, finance, society and culture,” said Chu. “An uncensorable NFT domain on Handshake is an invaluable asset and platform for the future of art and intellectual property.”

Ryan Ramirez, the owner of the .NFT domain extension prior to its sale to Chu, told Cointelegraph he originally purchased it for 4,096 HNS, or roughly $486 at time of publication. According to Ramirez, the purchase will allow the Kenetic co-founder to "issue unlimited sublevel domains" using the .NFT extension on the Handshake blockchain. 

Chu added:

“The possibilities of the NFT domain are endless, from decentralized nft galleries to making branded NFT subdomains like art.nft and crypto.nft available for rent or sale.”

Handshake's offering isn't the only example of decentralized domain extensions in the blockchain space. In 2019, Tim Draper-backed Unstoppable Domains began allowing users to register .crypto domains on the Ethereum blockchain. The Handshake protocol offers a similar service, creating an alternative to traditional .com, .org and .net extensions in letting users own domain names through a decentralized system.

Chu, who is involved in the crypto space as the co-founder of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, has previously made bullish predictions for Bitcoin (BTC). In May 2019, he believed that the price of the crypto asset would reach $30,000 by the end of that year, driven by firms like Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, Rakuten and Fidelity adopting crypto.

His reasoning turned out to be sound, but premature. Institutional interest in Bitcoin likely fueled the price of the coin passing $30,000 by the end of 2020 on to a new all-time high of more than $42,000 this year.