CoffeeTalk: Dot HipHop, LLC Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign — A Strategic Moment for DigitalAMN and .HipHop

From radio waves to equity crowdfunding — fueling Hip Hop’s path to financial ownership, with DJ Madout leading the way! 

Today, we’re pleased to share an important development: The team at Dot Hip Hop LLC (“Dot Hip Hop” or “.HipHop”), recently launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder (InvestIn.hiphop)—currently in the “testing the waters” phase, with cultural icon DJ Madout announced as the campaign’s lead investor (see press release).   

The InvestIn.hiphop Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg. CF) campaign invites the global Hip Hop community to co-invest in the official online domain name and digital identity for the Hip Hop culture (the Internet namespace for the communities of Hip Hop). By leveraging equity crowdfunding, .HipHop is giving DJs, fans, artists, producers, entrepreneurs, brands, business leaders and many more, an opportunity to “own the future of Hip Hop” online – a move Dot Hip Hop describes as aligning cultural and financial capital with the potential for real returns as adoption grows. 

DJ Madout said, “Hip Hop is more than music—it’s a movement, a culture, and a legacy.  By supporting .HipHop, I’m ensuring the culture owns its digital foundation. This is an investment in the future of Hip Hop, for the community and ultimately by the community.” 

The .HipHop domain, which is a culturally significant digital asset that connects directly with a global community of creators, entrepreneurs, and fans, is a deliberate, mission-aligned investment for DigitalAMN. While Dot HipHop is not a formal PAI client, the company’s decision to pursue community-focused fundraising mirrors a core pillar of our Public Accelerator-Incubator (PAI) model — preparing companies to leverage equity crowdfunding as a path to growth and broader ownership amongst novice and non-accredited investors. 

Why this matters: the InvestIn.hiphop campaign is more than a capital raise. Reg. CF is being leveraged as a promotion and marketing tool to expand awareness and adoption of the .HipHop namespace online — from registrar engagement to culture-first marketing that reaches artists, creators, and community leaders.  Starting with the ‘on-air’ announcement Ajene Watson and DJ Madout made earlier this month, promotional efforts will continue with various events, podcast and media interviews, and influencer use of the .HipHop domain name, along with carefully curated cultural initiatives and digital experiences designed to drive investment interest in .HipHop digital identities. 

From a strategic standpoint, we view several potential value drivers for DigitalAMN and our equity position in Dot Hip Hop: 

• Commercial adoption: increased domain registrations and commercial partnerships (registrars, platforms, and marketplaces) create recurring revenue opportunities for the registry operator. 
• Network effects: as artists, brands, and communities adopt .HipHop domain names and digital identities, the namespace becomes more valuable to new users and partners; creating premium values. 
• Premium Domain Sales: in addition to recurring revenue, flowing from ‘network effects’, domain names considered “Premium Names” can be auctioned and/or sold at premium values that could, in some instances, potentially exceed seven figures. 
• Ecosystem integration: initiatives to bridge Web2 domain services with Web3 features — such as decentralized identity, NFT-linked domains, and blockchain-enabled services (i.e. crypto payments, fractionalization of royalties, etc.) — could open new product and monetization avenues. 
• Cultural resonance: Dot HipHop’s focus on Hip Hop culture provides a defined, global audience that can accelerate community-driven growth. 

With professional guidance through the Domain Naming space – provided by veteran domaining experts Monte Cahn and Jeff Neuman – DigitalAMN is encouraged by the InvestIn.hiphop campaign and the early promotional activity because they reflect the equity crowdfunding and community-based models our PAI is designed to support.  Equally important, as a company with a meaningful equity stake in a Top-Level Domain (TLD)  bearing the name of a global cultural phenomena, ‘Hip Hop’, DigitalAMN anticipates that positive adoption and commercialization of .HipHop, could create strategic value that accrues to our growing portfolio (i.e. potential revenues and increased asset value).   

To quickly bring this endeavor into perspective, Verisign’s .COM and .NET have roughly 175M domains under management, and approximately $1.5B in annual revenue after nearly 40 years of development. Hip Hop crossed its ‘Golden Anniversary’ in 2023. With approximately 1 billion people worldwide associating themselves with Hip Hop culture, comprised of communities with an estimated $2 Trillion in buying power (in the U.S. alone), the possibilities over the next 3, 5, and even 10 years could be tremendous. And it would be DigitalAMN, its shareholders and the communities of Hip Hop culture that could potentially be the most significant benefactors; especially if those communities participate in the InvestIn.hiphop equity crowdfunding campaign. 

IMPORTANT REMINDER: We are not providing investment advice or financial guidance. That said, we expect to benefit over time from success in the assets where we hold equity stakes and/or other investment interests. We will continue to monitor Dot HipHop’s equity crowdfunding progress, registrar and partnership traction, and technical integrations.  We will report back to shareholders with updates via CoffeeTalk and any required filings. 

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