.dapp
Is .dapp a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .dapp in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Link Freedom Group named .dapp as the backup string of its .big application.
Nobody has applied for .dapp in its own right.
Will names sell?
A crypto-insider label for decentralized apps; fun to own, but most serious projects will likely brand elsewhere, so demand stays shallow.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .dapp’s closest 2012 strings hold .app 1.48M and .cloud 552K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .app, held 1,478,674 names, June 2026. .cloud held 551,867. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Identical bet: a short generic noun for a unit of software, sold to the people who build software so they can hang a product's primary identity on the thing they shipped — .dapp is the same wager with a paradigm qualifier bolted on.
- .ecom
Same construction and same gamble — an insider abbreviation that fuses a technology paradigm onto a generic category word, and it only works if that paradigm's practitioners adopt the jargon as their public identity rather than treating it as a passing descriptor.
A newly-named computing paradigm turned into a category namespace, betting that vendors and builders native to the paradigm will brand on the paradigm word itself; differs in that its buyer is enterprise infrastructure sellers rather than a developer subculture.
web3 developers, hackathon teams, and crypto-native studios shipping decentralized applications, plus dapp directories, tooling vendors, and speculators betting on the next crypto upcycle
What a .dapp domain is
.dapp is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Crypto category. Nobody has applied for .dapp in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .dapp domain extension real yet?
.dapp 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 .dapp domain?
You can’t yet. A .dapp name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .dapp was .app, delegated on 2 July 2015.
Is .dapp a real TLD?
Not yet. .dapp is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .dapp as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now replacementICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T47463 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .big”ICANN
“.dapp · Crypto & Web3 · “Apps without borders.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). 'Dapp' is genuine, widely understood jargon inside crypto, so a real but shallow market exists, which keeps it out of the 1-9 band. It does not reach the 30-49 band because, reasoning by analogy from other crypto-jargon namespaces (both ICANN and blockchain-based naming systems), demand for descriptive web3 strings has tended to spike with market cycles and then thin out, and decentralized-app projects have mostly chosen short brandables on general-purpose TLDs or chain-native names as their primary identity rather than labeling themselves with the category word; that pattern suggests .dapp registrations would be cyclical and price-driven rather than volume-sustained, with a thin aftermarket. The tagline in the applicant's catalog ('Apps without borders.', category Crypto & Web3) confirms the intended positioning but does not change the adoption dynamics. The term is also invisible to non-crypto buyers, capping crossover use. Main market uncertainty: whether the next crypto adoption wave makes 'dapp' a mainstream consumer word (which would pull the string toward category-standard territory) or leaves it as insider shorthand that products avoid in their own branding. Applicant fact, stated neutrally: the string was announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round before the window closed 2026-08-12 and published its full list ahead of Reveal Day (press-corroborated by Domain Name Wire, 2026-08-13); a large-portfolio applicant plausibly means broad registrar distribution and promotional pricing, which supports volume registrations but not necessarily primary-identity use. All volume, pricing, and adoption claims here are analogies, not verified figures; specific comparable-TLD numbers are unknown.