Also called descending-price auction · declining-price auction
Dutch auction, explained
In domain sales the format appears most often in closeouts and liquidation sales, where an unsold name or a list an investor wants to clear is offered at a price that steps down daily or weekly until someone takes it. There is no bidding war; the only decision is timing, and waiting for a lower price risks losing the name to another buyer.
For buyers, fix your maximum before the countdown starts, based on what you could realistically resell the name for, not on how low the price might fall. For sellers, a declining price can move names quickly, but it also shows the market that you will accept less, which can anchor future buyers of similar names. Use it for names you are ready to let go at the floor, not for your best assets. Outside domains, the term also describes uniform-price auctions used in securities offerings, which work differently.
Example. A seller clearing a list of hand-registered .com names cuts each name's price by a fixed step every day until a buyer clicks to purchase.
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