Deposit requirement to improve auction integrity — Namecheap institutes

Fresh users must deposit $100 in their Namecheap account ahead of bidding on auctions.

Illustration with four hands holding bidding cards that say "bid"

Namecheap has started requiring some users to make a deposit ahead of bidding in auctions, with the goal of improving auction integrity.

Fresh users must deposit $100 in their Namecheap account ahead of bidding on auctions. Some existing users with only a few auction purchases will also be asked to deposit $100 ahead of bidding on their next domain.

This is in addition to the $5 annual subscription fee for auctions.

The additional requirement comes on the heels of the user badge system Namecheap instituted in August. This system shows how much bidders have spent on auctions so far and how many domains they’ve won. The goal is to help rival bidders evaluate the legitimacy of other bidders. For example, if you are bidding on an expensive domain and the top bidder is brand fresh, you might be cautious regarding if they were a legitimate bidder.

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