.dapp
Is .dapp a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.dapp is not contested. One applicant has said publicly that it applied to run it, and nobody else has, as of 15 August 2026. It is Link Freedom Group.
A crypto-insider label for decentralized apps; fun to own, but most serious projects will likely brand elsewhere, so demand stays shallow.
web3 developers, hackathon teams, and crypto-native studios shipping decentralized applications, plus dapp directories, tooling vendors, and speculators betting on the next crypto upcycle
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Apps without borders.”
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.
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.
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.
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, filed under Crypto. One applicant has said publicly that it applied for .dapp.
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. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .dapp domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .dapp name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .dapp was .app, delegated on .
Is .dapp a real TLD?
Not yet. .dapp is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant said publicly that it applied for .dapp in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round. Every claim on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“.dapp · Crypto & Web3 · “Apps without borders.””Link Freedom Group
“LFG voluntarily published its full list of submissions ahead of ICANN’s official Reveal Day.”PR Newswire (Link Freedom Group)
“Top level domain registry Link Freedom Group (LFG) has disclosed more than 300 strings submitted as part of the ICANN new top level domain name program.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- 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.