Choosing an intermediary to sell a TLD: the questions to ask

Selling an onchain TLD is not a transaction in the ordinary sense. The asset is one of a kind, the pool of realistic buyers is small, and a first approach made to the wrong person, in the wrong words or at the wrong price is hard to take back. How you sell matters as much as what you sell.

Most holders reach a point where three paths look available: handle the sale themselves, offer the TLD on a marketplace, or mandate an intermediary. Each path has a logic, and the right one depends on what you actually need. This article works through that choice, then gives you the questions to ask any intermediary before you sign anything, together with what a good answer looks like and what a warning sign sounds like.

By the end, you will have a checklist you can take into any conversation, and you will know which answers earn trust and which ones warrant a second look.

Selling alone, on a marketplace, or through an intermediary

Each route serves a different situation.

Selling alone means you identify potential buyers, make the approach, set the price, conduct the negotiation, and manage the transfer. It is the right choice when you already know the buyer, the relationship is established, and the negotiation is close to a formality. It is harder when the buyer is unknown, because the moment a holder contacts a prospective buyer directly, the holder’s identity and wish to sell are visible from the first message. Information revealed early tends to move value from seller to buyer. Selling alone also asks for time and for a certain distance: it is difficult to hear a low offer for something you have held for years and answer it calmly.

A marketplace is built for buyers who come looking. It shows the TLD to whoever browses it and gives both sides a standard way to complete the sale. That suits a holder who is content for the availability of the TLD to be public, who has a price in mind, and who is prepared to wait for a buyer to arrive. It suits less well a sale that depends on one or two specific organizations, because those organizations may never browse a marketplace, and because nobody is there to explain to them why this TLD concerns them.

An intermediary sits between the two. It identifies and approaches buyers you would not reach alone, manages the flow of information, and speaks without naming you. What you give in return is a fee, usually a period of exclusivity, and some loss of direct control over the conversation. Whether that trade is worth making depends on the specific intermediary. The questions below are designed to help you find out.

The three routes are not ranked. A holder with a known buyer needs no one in the middle, and a holder with a clear price and no need for discretion may be well served by a marketplace. The intermediary earns its place when the likely buyer has to be found, persuaded that the subject deserves attention, and kept at the table.

What an intermediary actually does

Before you can judge an intermediary’s answers, you need a clear picture of what the job involves.

The work begins before any buyer is contacted. A serious intermediary will review what the TLD is, who is likely to want it, and at what price it becomes attractive to different kinds of buyers. That analysis shapes the choice of targets and the language used to approach them. It is not a mechanical process: the same asset presented to a brand’s legal team requires different framing than the same asset presented to an operator building a namespace, meaning a business that issues names under the TLD to its own users.

Once targets are identified, the intermediary makes the first approach. It does this in your place, without naming you, and under a confidentiality agreement before any material information is shared. The approach is not a broadcast: it is a directed note to a specific person or team, written to open a conversation rather than to close a deal.

Negotiation follows if there is interest. The intermediary holds the position, manages the back-and-forth, and advises you at each stage. It does not make decisions for you; it creates the conditions for you to make good ones. For an onchain TLD, closing typically runs through onchain escrow on an aftermarket, so that neither side has to hand over its part first and trust the other to follow.

It helps to be equally clear about what the intermediary is not. It is not your lawyer and not your tax adviser. It does not prove that you hold the TLD either: the registry record is public and anyone can check it on a block explorer, a public website that displays what is recorded on a blockchain. What the intermediary adds is access to the right people, judgment about what to say to them, and a layer between your name and the conversation.

That is the shape of the work. Now the questions.

Questions about method: who will be approached and how

The most important thing an intermediary brings is a view of who might buy. Ask for it explicitly.

Who, specifically, will be approached? The answer should be a coherent category, not a vague reference to “interested parties”. For a TLD that matches the name of an organization, such as .yourbrand, the list is short and begins with that organization. For a sector word such as .yoursector, it should lead with operators, platforms, and acquirers active in that sector. If the intermediary cannot sketch the categories before being retained, it has not yet thought about your asset.

Ask how the approach will be framed. The message a prospective buyer receives on your behalf is the first impression the TLD makes. Ask to see a sample of the kind of note that would be sent, with anything confidential removed. It should be specific and professional, not a form letter. Ask whether each approach will be tailored to the recipient. Generic outreach produces generic results.

Tone deserves its own question when the likely buyer owns a trademark that matches the TLD. A note to a trademark owner must inform and must never read as pressure: no deadline, no hint that the name will go to a competitor, no suggestion of what might happen if the organization declines. Ask the intermediary how it writes to such a reader. An approach that sounds like a demand damages the sale, and it is your asset that carries the consequences even if your name does not appear.

Ask about sequencing. Will targets be approached at the same time or in order of priority? Parallel approaches can create competition, which sometimes moves the price upward. Ordered approaches protect confidentiality better but take longer. Neither is always correct: the question is whether the intermediary has thought about it for your specific asset.

Ask what happens if a prospective buyer says no. A refusal is not always final. A buyer who declines now may have a different budget, mandate, or brand strategy later. Ask whether the intermediary keeps a record of who declined and why, and whether it would return to them, and after what kind of change.

Questions about confidentiality

Confidentiality is not a courtesy in a TLD sale. It is part of the structure.

Before any material information about the TLD is shared with a prospective buyer, there should be a written confidentiality agreement covering that exchange. Ask the intermediary what its standard approach to an NDA is, and at what point in the process it is signed. The answer should be specific. Hush Partners, for instance, covers every exchange with a standard mutual NDA that can be read in advance.

Ask what “your identity will be protected” means in practice. There is a difference between an intermediary that does not volunteer your name and one that has a documented procedure for shielding it. Ask how your name, the price you have in mind, and the fact that you are seeking a sale are each handled in the first note.

Remember that an onchain TLD has a public side that no agreement can cover. The registry record can be checked by anyone on a block explorer. Confidentiality therefore concerns who you are, what you want and what you would accept, not the existence of the TLD. An intermediary that understands the asset will say so without being asked.

Ask what happens if a prospective buyer who was approached under NDA later tries to reach you or to acquire the TLD through a different channel. The answer depends on how the agreement is drafted, and on the law that governs it, which varies by country. Your own counsel should review any confidentiality agreement before you rely on it.

Ask whether the intermediary has ever disclosed a client’s identity without authorization, and what it did afterward. A candid answer, even a difficult one, is more valuable than a polished denial.

Questions about conflicts of interest

The question about conflicts of interest is easy to forget, and it does the most damage when the answer surfaces late.

An intermediary that acts for both a seller and a prospective buyer in the same transaction has divided loyalties. The conflict does not have to be direct to matter. An intermediary that holds TLDs similar to yours has an interest of its own in how yours is priced and presented. An intermediary that also acts for organizations acquiring TLDs may have relationships with potential buyers that it wants to protect. None of this is disqualifying on its own, but all of it needs to be disclosed.

Three questions cover most of the ground. For whom else do you act in transactions that involve the same TLD or a TLD in the same category? Do you hold any TLDs that compete with mine? If a buyer you introduce to me later acquires a competing asset through you, how is that handled?

An intermediary that bristles at these questions is telling you something. A serious one will have a clear policy and will state it plainly. Hush Partners publishes the rules the desk works by, and those rules are the place to check its answers against what it says in conversation. Ask any intermediary for the equivalent document.

Ask also whether the intermediary has a policy for a conflict that arises during the mandate. Interests can shift in the course of a negotiation. The policy should require disclosure and should give you the right to end the relationship if a material conflict emerges.

Questions about fees and when they fall due

A fee structure is also an incentive structure. Ask about both.

Start with the trigger rather than the amount: when does the fee become payable? Practices differ. A fee can fall due at signature of the mandate, at a milestone, or at closing. No trigger is right in itself, and each rewards something different: a fee earned at closing rewards the result, a fee earned earlier pays for work done whatever the outcome. What matters is that you know which one you are agreeing to, and what you will owe if no sale takes place. Ask whether any part of the fee stays with the intermediary when the transaction does not complete, and under what circumstances.

Ask whether the fee is charged to you or to the buyer. Some intermediaries charge both sides. When both sides pay, neither is clearly the client. Knowing who pays tells you whose interests the intermediary is primarily serving.

Ask whether the fee is a fixed amount or a proportion of the sale price. A percentage looks aligned with you, since it rises with the price. In practice the difference between a good offer and a better one changes the intermediary’s fee only slightly, while a closed sale secures all of it, so a percentage can create pressure to close rather than to wait. It can also encourage presenting the first serious offer favorably. A fixed fee is neutral on the closing price.

Ask what the fee includes. Does it cover the drafting of confidentiality agreements? Does it cover the mechanics at closing, or is there a separate charge for escrow and transfer? Ask who pays any cost charged by the aftermarket on which the escrow runs.

Get the fee structure in writing before you sign anything. Ask for a copy of the standard mandate agreement in advance, not on the day you are asked to sign it.

Questions about authority and reporting

An intermediary that speaks for you needs limits on what it may say, and you need to know what it has said. Set both before the mandate begins.

Ask who will handle your file. Not the firm, not the team: the person. You need a single point of contact who knows your file in detail. Ask what happens to your file if that person leaves or becomes unavailable.

Ask what authority the intermediary will have. Can it state a price on your behalf without your explicit approval? Can it enter into any binding obligation in your name? The answer to both should be no. An intermediary is an agent, and its authority must be bounded in writing. In practice that means every figure quoted to a buyer, and every acceptance or refusal, comes from you.

Ask how often you will receive a report and what it will contain. At a minimum it should cover who was approached, when, and what the response was. It should distinguish between approaches made, conversations opened, and offers received. A report that says only “we have been active” tells you nothing. Ask also whether you will see every offer, including the ones the intermediary considers too low. The decision to dismiss an offer is yours.

Ask what information the intermediary will need from you, and how it will be stored and protected. A description of what the TLD can do, the names already issued under it, and your target price are all sensitive. Ask where that information is kept and who has access to it.

For a reference point, the stages of a file at this desk, from mandate to transfer, show what a structured process looks like. Any intermediary should be able to describe its own stages just as plainly.

Good answers, weak answers and warning signs

The questions side by side

Warning signs in the first meetings

Some signals are worth naming plainly, because they are easy to miss in the momentum of a first meeting.

An intermediary that asks for the lowest price you would accept before any confidentiality agreement is in place is asking for your most sensitive number without any obligation to protect it. Decline to answer until an NDA is signed, however informal the conversation feels.

An intermediary that cannot name a single type of buyer it would approach for your specific TLD has not prepared. The set of plausible buyers for an onchain TLD is narrow enough that a prepared intermediary can sketch it in a few sentences. If it cannot, either the asset class is new to it or the process is the same for every client.

An intermediary that presses you to sign quickly, citing other interested buyers or a closing window, may be describing an urgency that does not exist. A serious process takes time, and your ability to walk away at any point is part of your position.

An intermediary that cannot produce a sample mandate agreement for your counsel to review is either unprepared or has terms it would prefer you not to read in advance. Both are problems.

Be cautious of a claim that a specific buyer is already waiting, when the intermediary will not describe even the category of buyer or the basis for the interest. A claim of existing demand that you cannot verify should carry no weight in your decision.

Be equally cautious of a price promised at the first meeting. An estimate given before the intermediary has studied the TLD, and before any buyer has been approached, is a guess. A high one mostly serves to win the mandate, and you will measure every later offer against it.

Choosing an intermediary should feel like a professional engagement, not a purchase. If the process feels rushed, that is itself information.

Ending the relationship

Even a well-chosen intermediary can become the wrong one as circumstances change. Know how to end the relationship before you begin it.

Ask for the termination clause in writing before you sign the mandate. Under what conditions can you terminate? What notice period applies? Does termination trigger a fee, and if so, how is it calculated? Some agreements include a tail period, meaning that if a buyer introduced by the intermediary completes a transaction within a defined window after termination, the fee remains payable. A tail period is reasonable if it is limited in time and applies only to buyers the intermediary actually introduced, ideally named in a list handed to you when the mandate ends. A tail without limits is not.

Ask what happens to your confidential information on termination. Who deletes it, and who confirms the deletion? If the intermediary presented your TLD to several prospective buyers before you terminated, those people still hold information about your asset. Ask whether the intermediary will tell them that the process has ended and that what they received remains confidential.

Ask whether the mandate is exclusive and for how long. Exclusivity generally means you cannot mandate another intermediary during the period, and depending on the wording you may owe the fee even if you find the buyer yourself. That is a significant commitment. The period should match a realistic timeline for the type of sale: long enough for the intermediary to work properly, short enough that you are not bound indefinitely if progress stalls.

If you are a lawyer or adviser referring a file, the questions about termination are often the ones your client will need most help with, and the time to raise them is before signature.

Preparing before you speak to any intermediary

Before the first conversation, two things will give you a stronger position.

The first is a view of what the TLD is worth. Without one, you cannot weigh the offers that an intermediary brings you, and you cannot judge whether its reading of the market is sound. You can request a private valuation to have a reference point before any negotiation begins.

The second is a view of how ready the TLD is to be sold. An intermediary will ask what has been set up on the TLD and which names have already been issued under it. The TLD Readiness Score on this site gives holders a structured way to assess that before the first meeting.

If you want to compare what you have read with one concrete case, the page on sell-side mandates describes how this desk works for a holder. In outline: one named partner follows a file from the first note to closing, the fee is a fixed amount and never a percentage, it is charged only to the client who mandates the desk, and the desk is reached through the contact form on the site and nowhere else.

The questions above apply to any intermediary, including this one. Ask them.

Questions people ask

Is an exclusive mandate always required?

Not always, but it is common. An intermediary invests time and relationships before any result, and exclusivity protects that investment. The question is whether the period is reasonable for the work involved. A defined period with a clear process is a reasonable request; an open-ended one without milestones is not. You can negotiate the duration and the milestones before you sign.

What if I have already had informal conversations with a potential buyer?

Tell the intermediary before you sign. If a buyer you have already contacted is among the intermediary’s targets, the mandate agreement should say how that situation is handled, including whether the fee applies to a sale to that party. Leaving it out creates a dispute that is much harder to resolve after the fact.

Can the intermediary also handle the technical transfer?

Some can, some cannot. An onchain TLD is recorded as a token held in a wallet, and the transfer moves that token to the buyer’s wallet, which requires familiarity with the registry and the aftermarket involved. Ask whether the intermediary manages this itself or relies on a third party, and who is responsible if something goes wrong at closing.

Do I need my own legal counsel even if the intermediary handles everything?

Yes. An intermediary is not your lawyer. The mandate agreement, the NDA, the documents at closing, and anything the intermediary states on your behalf can all have legal consequences, and the rules differ from one country to another. This is information, not legal advice: your counsel decides what you sign.