Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Wrapped 2022 With Over 2.2M Registrations

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) clocked in over 2.2 million domain names in 2022 despite the devastating turmoil in the crypto market. This also represented nearly 80% of all of the domains created since its inception.

Data from Dune Analytics revealed that the Ethereum-based distributed domain name service registered more than 2.82 million names as of January 2nd.

ENS domain name purchases are made with Ether tokens. With the fall in the price of the crypto-asset significantly over the year, the cost of gas fees for transactions on the network also plummeted, which at certain stages throughout the year prompted an appreciation in the number of .eth domain name registrations as users capitalized the lower fees.

ENS Trend Throughout 2022

Ethereum Name Service figures were on a consistent uptrend for the first five months of the year. The first prominent high in terms of in .eth domain registrations formed in May. However, the TerraUSD (UST) crash and the subsequent contagion fears gripped the market, which coincided with a drop.

The recovery, however, was quick. July broke the earlier record. Shortly thereafter, it logged a monthly high of 437,365 in September. The Merge may have played a crucial role in the increased activity.

On the other hand, ENS wrapped up the year at its lowest level, with December being the worst-performing month. A little over 52,000 names were created. Meanwhile, the count of monthly registrations dropped by 88% since its peak just two months prior.

One of the major boosts came from Coinbase leveraging ENS service to enable users to claim “name.cb.id” usernames using Coinbase Wallet’s browser extension. The idea was to facilitate the creation of a free web3 identity for everyone.

Lawsuit Against GoDaddy

Another win came in the form of regaining control of the eth.link domain name. The ENS scored a victory on an injunction in its lawsuit against domain provider GoDaddy last September in the US District Court for the District of Arizona.

True Names Ltd., the company behind ENS, sued GoDaddy for allegedly transferring the ENS’s eth.link name to domain name registrar Dynadot before its expiration date and putting the name up for auction. According to the complaint, ENS accused GoDaddy of breaching the contract and claimed that the latter’s action violated the agreement to “respect, acknowledge, and protect” the eth.link name.