Crypto.com's CEO bought AI.com for $70M in a deal fully paid in crypto and is spending millions on a Super Bowl ad to launch it.

I was already surprised YC was backing OpenClaw wrappers, and now the biggest publicly disclosed domain deal ever is also just a fancy OpenClaw wrapper. AI.com's beta lets you "activate AI agents based on the OpenClaw framework" (freemium model, premium tiers for higher token limits).

The domain has been a redirect circus for years:

- Feb 2023: pointed to ChatGPT (OpenAI) - but OpenAI never actually owned it, despite the $11M rumors

- Aug 2023: flipped to xAI (Elon Musk)

- Later: redirected to Gemini (Google), then back to ChatGPT, then to DeepSeek

The owner, Arsyan Ismail (Malaysian tech guy), was just leasing/trolling with redirects, not selling.

The actual sale:

Sold by Arsyan Ismail to Kris Marszalek for $70M in April 2025

Brokered by Larry Fischer from GetYourDomain.com

Paid entirely in crypto

Asking price was $100M in March 2025, so @kris saved $30M

Domain was registered in 1993, but Arsyan bought it later (not as a kid in '93).

Now Marszalek is CEO of both Crypto.com and AI.com, launching a consumer AI platform that's literally just hosted OpenClaw with a $70M domain slapped on it.