The process of purchasing a digital identity in the Shiba Inu ecosystem now has a more sophisticated front door. The Shib Name Service (SNS) Marketplace went live this week, launching not as a trading floor for old names, but as a streamlined storefront for new ones. While peer-to-peer selling is part of a future vision, this initial launch focuses entirely on making the experience of buying a .shib name more accessible than ever.
This marks a significant evolution for the service, which first went live in late 2023. In its initial phase, the service established a strong cultural foundation, with .shib names serving as powerful symbols of identity. This week’s launch builds a new layer of professional utility on top of that foundation.
The SNS Marketplace is built with accessibility in mind, offering a suite of familiar e-commerce mechanics. The platform is built for discovery and convenience, featuring a real-time search function with smart recommendations to help users find available names.
The most significant new features are the shopping cart and multi-currency payment options. Users can now browse for multiple domains, add them to a single cart, and complete the purchase in one transaction. Payments are accepted in a range of cryptocurrencies, including BONE, SHIB, ETH, or USDC, broadening access for all participants.
Once purchased, the names are controlled through a management dashboard where users can configure their domains and set a primary identity. Because each name is a unique digital asset—an NFT—ownership is permanent and verifiable.
While the marketplace does not yet facilitate selling, it does establish a clear economic system for its digital real estate. Value is codified directly into the dynamic pricing for all new name purchases.
Shorter, more memorable names of just three or four characters are treated as premium property, costing the equivalent of $100. Longer domains are more accessible, priced between $10 and $50. This tiered structure creates an inherent sense of scarcity and status, encouraging users to secure valuable or meaningful names before they are claimed by others.
While the immediate initial focus is on purchasing, developers see the SNS Marketplace as a critical step toward a much larger vision. This purchase-focused launch is a foundational step. A professional and robust system for acquiring names is a prerequisite for a true, two-sided market where users can also sell their assets.
The long-term vision for concepts like “DomainFi” — where names could be used as collateral or leased out — depends on a clear and organized system of ownership. By professionalizing the front end for primary sales, developers are paving the way for more complex infrastructure, including a future secondary market, to be built on top.
This upgraded platform, then, is more than a simple storefront; it is the necessary foundation upon which the ecosystem’s future financial ambitions will be built. For now, the focus is not on what a name is worth to someone else, but on securing your own identity before it’s gone.
For this vision to work, there must first be a liquid market capable of establishing fair valuations. The SNS marketplace is designed to be exactly that infrastructure.
With the new Shib Name Service Marketplace now live, .shib names have crossed the line from culture to commerce. They are no longer just identifiers or digital badges — they are assets, subject to price discovery, speculation, and ownership disputes.
And that shift leaves the community with a provocative new reality: in this economy, identity itself is the asset.
