• D3 Global has secured $25 million in Series A funding led by Paradigm to develop blockchain-based infrastructure for tokenizing domain names as digital assets.
• The company is launching the Doma Protocol, which integrates traditional domains with Web3, enabling fractional ownership, lending, and identity solutions.

D3 Global, a company specializing in DomainFi infrastructure, has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Paradigm. The investment also saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah, and Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall. The funding highlights the growing interest in domain names as a financial asset class within both Web2 and Web3 sectors.

D3 is developing the world’s first DomainFi network on the Doma Protocol, a blockchain designed to modernize internet domains as digital real estate. The initiative aims to introduce financial tools such as fractional ownership, domain-based lending, and enhanced digital identity solutions.

Doma Protocol is a blockchain infrastructure designed to integrate seamlessly with the Domain Name System (DNS) while adhering to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) compliance standards. The protocol enables tokenization of domain names, improving liquidity and interoperability across Web2 and Web3 ecosystems.

D3 claims that Doma abstracts complex domain management processes, allowing for smoother transactions, renewals, and ownership transfers. By bridging traditional domains (.com, .net, .ai) with Web3 naming systems, the protocol seeks to create a unified domain management framework for registrars, registries, and crypto communities.

D3 has also announced multiple partnerships to accelerate DomainFi adoption. The Solana Foundation is collaborating with D3 to integrate Web2 and Web3 domain infrastructures on Solana’s blockchain. As part of this effort, applications for .SOL and .SOLANA top-level domains (TLDs) have been initiated, alongside tokenization of existing domain extensions such as .com, .xyz, and .ai.

Avalanche, another blockchain network, is set to apply for the .AVAX TLD, leveraging its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem to enhance liquidity within the domain industry. Meanwhile, OneFootball, a global football media platform, plans to use .football domains to create a decentralized identity framework for its 180 million monthly users.

Other partnerships include Plume, which will integrate DomainFi with its Nest Protocol to offer yield-generating opportunities for tokenized domains, and Hockey.com, which aims to introduce fractional ownership models for premium domain assets.

“Internet domains have long been a valuable asset class,” said Fred Hsu, CEO and co-founder of D3. “For the first time in nearly three decades, we have the opportunity to modernize and transform the technologies and processes currently used by the domain industry through the Doma Protocol.”

Charlie Noyes, general partner at Paradigm, added that bringing domains on-chain will “make them more liquid and enable innovative new types of financial products, while giving crypto ecosystems like Solana access to names that work with the rest of the existing internet.”

The newly secured funds will be used to expand D3’s DomainFi infrastructure and onboard domain industry stakeholders such as registrars and registries. By integrating blockchain-based solutions with the traditional domain name system, D3 aims to position domain names as a more accessible and financially viable asset class for a global internet user base.

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by Harshajit Sarmah.