After a short negotiation on Dan.com last week, I agreed to sell a domain name for six figures. It’s a domain name I had discussed with this prospective buyer before, and he accepted a counteroffer I made on May 4th. I was hoping to close the deal promptly to fund a couple of other purchases I have in the works, but it has not yet closed.

My Account Manager at Dan.com has been keeping me apprised of the transaction status. It appears this deal may not close. The buyer wants to pay for the domain name with Bitcoin, which can be done via Dan.com. Unfortunately, the price of Bitcoin has taken a hit over the last several days. Around the time of the sale, Bitcoin was hovering just shy of $40,000/coin. The price of BTC is now around $33,000/coin. I am told the buyer indicated he can no longer pay for the domain name due to the dropping price of BTC.

In my opinion, the lower value of BTC is not an acceptable reason to default on a deal.

Bitcoin is a speculative investment. For the last few years, the price of BTC has bounced around quite a bit. The price is well-off all time highs, but it is still quite a bit higher than it was a few years ago. The price fluctuations seems to be a feature for traders, and someone with experience trading would know and understand this.

If I agreed to buy a domain name and planned to fund the deal by selling stock, I might be hurting because the stock markets have fallen this past week and appear to be on the same track as we start this week. I would not try to back out of a deal I agreed to because the value of my stock portfolio fell.

If this deal gets canceled due to non-payment, the price of the domain name will revert back to where it was. If the price of BTC increases and the buyer wants the domain name in the future, it will cost more (if buyer isn’t banned from Dan due to defaulting). On the other hand, if BTC continues to drop in value, paying for the domain name now will limit some of the loss.