The world's first .com domain name costs $20 million, but valuation tools disagree

On March 15, 2025, the world's first registered .com domain name, Symbolics.com, celebrated its 40th anniversary. As a witness to the history of the Internet, its owner set a price of $20 million for this domain name, highlighting its unique historical and collection value.

It is worth noting that the $20 million asking price set by the domain name owner himself is very different from the evaluation results of professional domain name valuation tools. For example, Saw.com only values ​​the domain name at $18,000, while Estibot values ​​it at $13,000.

This significant difference reveals the limitations of artificial intelligence in assessing historical value and emotional factors. Domain name valuation tools are usually based on market data, traffic, keywords, and historical sales records, but for domain names with deep historical significance like Symbolics.com, their emotional and collection value is difficult to quantify, resulting in low evaluation results.

Market demand and scarcity drive high asking prices

The high asking price set by the holder for Symbolics.com stems from its unique status as the first .com domain name and its importance in the history of the Internet. This scarcity and symbolic significance make it uniquely attractive to collectors and brand marketing, driving the holder's expectations of a high price.

The difference between the holder's asking price and the valuation reflects the conflict between emotional value and artificial intelligence evaluation. This reminds us that in the evaluation of digital assets, in addition to relying on algorithms and data analysis, the historical and emotional factors behind it should also be considered to more fully reflect its true value.