On February 4th, 2022, ENS name Deepak.eth sold for 75 ETH, which was $224,788.50 at the time of the sale.

The 75 ETH sale made Deepak.eth the 13th most expensive ENS domain sale of all time. 

ENS domains have been heating up for months and now there is much more attention on Sol domains, sometimes called .sol domains. 

Remember, this is not intended to be taken as financial advice. I started registering Solana domains (and I’m going to show you exactly how to do that) back in March so that I could learn, but any financial decisions you make with regard to this tutorial are yours and yours alone. 

Solana is currently the number 3 blockchain in all-time sales according to CryptoSlam.io with $2,614,884,948 in total sales volume from 717,630 buyers. 

Ethereum is currently (as of 9/11/2022) at $29,381,527,577 in total sales volume, which is more than 10x of Solana. 

However, we have seen a number of fast-rising Solana NFT projects including OkayBears, y00ts, DeGods, Solana Monkey Business, generate sales volume that rivals Ethereum NFTs. 

For example, in the past 30 days, ABC(abracadabra) an NFT project on Solana, has done the 5th most sales volume on OpenSea (between Ethereum and Solana NFT projects) with 323,000 in SOL volume. 

If Solana continues to solidify as a number two blockchain with a unique audience, Solana Name Service (SNS) is worth a look. 

The mechanics of purchasing a .sol domain are a bit different than ENS — they don’t expire and most domain sales are run via auction. You can also pick up some for a fixed price either in FIDA (purchasable through Coinbase) or USDC. 

There has been a significant amount of activity on the secondary market for Sol domains on MagicEden, after Twitter buzz began to pick up with 4D (four-digit) Solana domain sales. 

Most SNS domains can be acquired today for between $15 and $25. This is likely a longer-term play, but at the cost of acquisition, it’s hard to ignore.

It is also important to note — now might not be the best time to buy on the secondary market as there is a lot of hype, but it’s worth looking at secondary sales to see how much people are paying for these domains. 

How Do I See How Much SOL Domains Are Selling for on the Secondary Market?

Step 1 — Navigate to MagicEden.io 

Step 2 — Type Bonfida into the Collections and Creators search bar 

Step 3 — Click on the Activity Tab 

This will display recent sales of Sol domains including the amount of the transaction: 

Source: MagicEden.io 

This is the first place to start before registering a Solana domain so that you can get a feel for what people are buying before you spend any money registering a domain. 

The current floor price of Bonfida: Solana Name Service a.k.a. Sol domains is 0.44 sol, with 7,381 domains listed. 

You can see recent sales and active listings.

If you want to buy a Sol domain on the secondary market, make sure you have Sol in your Phantom wallet and you can buy directly from MagicEden.io.

What Are Sol Domains? 

Sol Domains are the actionable part of the Solana Name Service (SNS), which is a decentralized service to map domain names (e.g. .sol) to on-chain data such as images, text, fund transfers, and more with human-readable names. 

Put another, simpler way: 

Solana Name Service provides human-readable domain names (Sol domains) that can be mapped to on-chain (on the blockchain) activity to make it easier to transfer information back and forth. 

For example, cryptocurrency wallets like MetaMask or Phantom use a mix of letters and numbers to identify specific users. They are often long and inconvenient. 

It’s like having an e-mail address or user ID of: ASxyY3lyL0ctv1A 

Sure, you can copy-paste it, but wouldn’t you rather use your name or some other identity? 

That’s the exact problem Solana Name Service (much like ENS domains) solves for. 

You can now create a vanity domain that links to blockchain activity so instead of having to copy and paste your wallet address, you can use something simple like jon.sol (only if it’s available). 

The hypothesis behind the value of these domains is that brands and individuals will want to secure their identity as they transact across the blockchain. 

Deepak.eth, for example, is owned by someone named Deepak, who can use that ENS as their blockchain e-mail address. 

There’s some vanity to it, like having an identifying license plate (how cool would it be to have the 007 license plate?) that puts it into collecting territory, but SNS and ENS domains have functionality that has not yet fully been explored. 

The infrastructure has not fully matured yet, other than making it easier to share a wallet address or add your ENS/SNS domain name to your Twitter profile for clout, so proceed with caution. 

What Cryptocurrency Do You Need to Register SOL Domains? 

There are two cryptocurrencies used to register SOL domains: FIDA and USDC. 

First things first, you need to download and set up a Phantom wallet. 

I recommend using it in the Brave Browser and this article from help.phantom.app has a short video to walk you through all the steps you need to set up your Phantom Wallet (hyperlinked here). 

You need to purchase FIDA (Bonfida) from Coinbase in order to register Sol domains. 

You may also need to convert some Sol or Fida to USDC by clicking the swap icon in your Phantom wallet: 

Source: Phantom Wallet

How to Register a SOL Domain 

Step 1 — Download and install a Phantom Wallet on your web browser 

Step 2 — Log into Coinbase, navigate to Buy/Sell and purchase FIDA (I recommend at least 42 FIDA, as that is enough threshold to pay registration fees for 1 domain) 

Step 3 — Transfer FIDA from Coinbase to your Phantom Wallet 

Step 4 — Go to https://naming.bonfida.org/and search for a sol domain 

Step 5 — Add the domain to your cart and complete the purchase, kick off the auction and bid or monitor an auction and submit the winning bid to gain ownership over the domain 

It’s really that simple — it can be done in 5 steps. 

Each domain is different — some kick off into auctions, which you need to monitor and make sure you win (I completely forgot about a few domains I wanted to register and lost them in an auction). 

If a Solana domain registration auction finishes with no bids, you can restart the auction. 

How Can I See if a SOL Domain Is Already Taken?

Step 1 — Go to https://naming.bonfida.org/and search for a sol domain

Step 2 — Read the search results and look for Domain Taken — if you see that, it means someone else already owns the domain

This is also very simple. You just check the naming service search for what you want to buy and see if it is taken: 

Source: naming.bonfida.org

Closing Thoughts

Be careful with the hype of Sol domains. 

I’ve been watching since and buying a few domains since March, but the use-case of these domains is still largely speculation. 

It does make a lot of sense for a brand, company or influencer to pay money for their ENS or SNS domain, much like in Web2, but we are early enough not to know exactly how widespread they will be used. 

Regardless, it’s fun to see the Solana blockchain get more attention with Solana Name Service.