Apex domains cannot have CNAME records.
Question and response
Question
dig nic.hosting. NS
Answer
nic.hosting. 1 NS c.nic.hosting.
nic.hosting. 1 NS d.nic.hosting.
nic.hosting. 1 NS a.nic.hosting.
nic.hosting. 1 NS b.nic.hosting.
Authority
The response has no authority records.
Additional
a.nic.hosting. 53961 A 194.169.218.152
b.nic.hosting. 53961 A 185.24.64.152
c.nic.hosting. 53961 A 212.18.248.152
d.nic.hosting. 53961 A 212.18.249.152
a.nic.hosting. 53961 AAAA 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:152
b.nic.hosting. 53961 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:152
c.nic.hosting. 53961 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:152
d.nic.hosting. 53961 AAAA 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:152
. 0 OPT ; payload 1232, xrcode 0, version 0, flags 0