.cardano
Is .cardano a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .cardano in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Cardano Foundation named .cardano as the replacement string of its .ada application.
A one-ecosystem crypto brand string: handy inside the Cardano community, but narrow, likely controlled, with little resale value.
projects, stake-pool operators, wallets and community initiatives building on the Cardano blockchain, plus the foundation and its affiliates seeking an ecosystem-branded trust signal
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a coined proper noun for a novel internet technology whose steward organization (not a consumer corporation) applies for its own name, where the namespace only means anything if the underlying protocol itself gets adopted by outside builders.
Same bet in that the string is a single owner's platform brand whose worth as a namespace rests on third-party developers wanting to wear the platform's identity, though the owner is an incumbent software vendor rather than a foundation stewarding an open network.
Also a one-owner coined platform brand sold to an ecosystem of outside developers and apps rather than to the public, but it rides an already-installed base, whereas the target is betting the ecosystem still has to arrive.
What a .cardano domain is
.cardano is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Crypto. Nobody has applied for .cardano in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .cardano domain extension real yet?
.cardano is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .cardano domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .cardano name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .cardano was .frogans, delegated on 19 April 2014.
Is .cardano a real TLD?
Not yet. .cardano is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .cardano as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Cardano Foundation · first recordedICANN
“CS2678T-T83663 · Cardano Stiftung · replacement string of .ada”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is the proper name of a single blockchain ecosystem, and the record shows one application by Cardano Stiftung as a replacement string for .ada, which suggests the operator intends an ecosystem or brand namespace rather than an open generic. Demand is real but bounded: ecosystem builders, stake-pool operators and wallets could plausibly value a registry-controlled address as a trust signal against impersonation, and that is the best case for primary-identity use. It is not in the 30-49 band because volume registrations on price are implausible for a trademark-held project name that the operator would most likely allocate by eligibility, and any aftermarket would be thin to nonexistent if transfers are restricted, as is typical of brand-style TLDs (inference from analogy with existing dotBrand outcomes, where third-party resale is generally absent). It is not in the 1-9 band because the ecosystem has an active developer and operator community with a genuine, if narrow, need for verifiable naming, and a single-community TLD with an engaged operator can sustain some real primary-identity use (analogy: community-scoped and brand TLDs that see modest but genuine internal adoption). Crypto ecosystems also commonly run on-chain naming systems that compete directly with a DNS namespace for the same users, which caps the DNS address's utility (analogy, not a verified fact about this ecosystem). Main market uncertainty: whether the registry opens registration to third-party ecosystem projects on reasonable terms or keeps it as a closed brand namespace used only by the foundation and affiliates; the former would push toward the top of the band, the latter toward the bottom.