ICANN Publishes 1,615 Applications in 2026 Domain Round

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published 1,615 applications from 481 applicants in its 2026 round of new generic top-level domains, opening a path for new internet address endings tied to artificial intelligence and crypto.

The Reveal Day snapshot was recorded at 11:41 a.m. ET (15:41 UTC) on Oct. 7. ICANN published the applications and preliminary contention information at 2 p.m. ET (18:00 UTC) the same day.

The applicant list includes OpenAI, Google-related entities and Meta for .agent. OpenAI also applied for .gpt and .chatgpt, while Anthropic applied for .claude.

Crypto-related applications include .ada, .btc, .bitcoin and .ethereum. The Cardano Foundation’s .ada application advanced to the next phase after Reveal Day, and the foundation identified .sol, .ethereum, .btc and .bitcoin as Web3-related applications in the round.

The 2026 application window ran from April 30 through Aug. 12. The standard evaluation fee was $227,000 per application, excluding certain discounts and additional conditional fees.

A generic top-level domain, or gTLD, is the portion of an internet address after the final dot, such as .com or .org. Multiple applicants can seek the same string, but when applicants seek the same string, only one application in the resulting direct contention set can ultimately proceed to delegation.

Contention can be resolved through withdrawal, community-priority procedures or an ICANN auction. Advancing through the application stage does not guarantee approval, delegation or public registration.

The Oct. 7 snapshot differs from an earlier figure of 1,616 paid applications that were expected to proceed. The 1,615-application total was previously covered in TokenPost’s earlier report on the 2026 round.

“Reveal Day marks an important milestone for the next expansion of the Domain Name System,” ICANN President and CEO Kurtis Lindqvist said.

“These applications demonstrate how organizations around the world are seeking new ways to build trusted online identities, serve their communities, and connect with Internet users,” Lindqvist said.

ICANN is scheduled to publish the final list of strings proceeding through the program on Nov. 17. Evaluations, contracting and delegation are expected to continue through approximately June 2030.