The highly sought-after domain crypto.com has finally been sold to cryptocurrency credit card company Monaco in a deal reportedly worth millions of dollars.

Originally registered by computer scientist Matt Blaze in 1993, the University of Pennsylvania professor had until now been adamant that the domain was not for sale:

For anyone else trying to contact me for this reason, don't bother. Not for sale. https://t.co/S8yKT4J5IF — matt blaze (@mattblaze) January 5, 2018

With reports suggesting the sale might have been worth as much as $10 million, it is unclear what the precise amount was – although Blaze did remark to TechCrunch that “If it was only about money he’d have sold it a long time ago.”

Monaco, based in Hong-Kong, launched in 2017 with an ICO for its MCO token – raising $27 million by the end of the sale in June. CEO Kris Marszalek, a serial tech entrepeneur, explained that the domain acquisition has a broader purpose for the company beyond its rebrand:

“This is a very powerful identity that we are taking on. It’s representative of the entire category so it comes with a huge responsibility on us to carry the torch. We don’t take it lightly and this is one of the things that I think we conveyed successfully, that, as a company, we do have a higher purpose…

Adding that the domain will help the company further the cause of blockhain and cryptocurrency adoption:

“Fundamentally, blockchain and crypto will enable [the next generation] to control their money, to control their data and to control their identity, these are the three fundamental things that weave the fabric of society. For us this is the purpose, we want to accelerate the world’s adoption of cryptocurrency.”

With sought-after domains in the crypto space few and far between, blockchain and crypto enthusiasts will hope that this latest acquisition will be utilised effectively to further bring the industry into the mainstream.