.dna
Is .dna a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.dna is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are GoDaddy Registry and Link Freedom Group. Radix named .dna as a backup string for its .biotech application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. ShortDot named .dna as a backup string for its .lab application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
One of the two already run TLDs, 7.22M names between them. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
A catchy label for genetics, biotech, and brand-identity projects, but most serious companies would likely still pick a mainstream domain.
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. .dna’s closest 2012 strings hold .bio 69K, .hiv 208 and .science 12K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .bio, held 69,202 names, June 2026. .hiv held 208; .science held 12,113. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short, unowned life-sciences root noun that a specialist industry plus a metaphor-driven general audience would both claim as primary identity, carrying the same double-meaning ambiguity (biology/biography vs. genome/brand-DNA) that makes the namespace broad but fuzzy.
Structurally the nearest twin — a universally legible three-letter biomedical initialism nobody owns, where the string's meaning is fixed by science rather than marketing — but its bet was a narrow cause/awareness registry rather than a commercial category anyone builds a business identity on.
Same bet type of a generic research-domain noun whose registrants would be labs, institutes and technical firms putting a scientific-credibility flag on their name, though it is a whole-field label rather than a single concrete scientific object with a defined vertical behind it.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and GoDaddy Registry face each other in 32 contests this round, .dna included.
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × Radix
- Link Freedom Group × ShortDot
- GoDaddy Registry × ShortDot
- GoDaddy Registry × Radix
genomics and biotech startups, personal-DNA and ancestry-adjacent services, plus brands using 'DNA' as an identity metaphor (company DNA, product DNA)
What a .dna domain is
.dna is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .dna domain extension real yet?
.dna 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 .dna domain?
You can’t yet. A .dna 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 .dna was .bio, delegated on 2 June 2014.
Is .dna a real TLD?
Not yet. .dna is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .dna is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Radix · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now deactivated backupICANN
- ShortDot · now abandonedICANN
- GoDaddy Registry · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T33762 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-67 NA2626T-T54761 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .lab · Deactivated NA2631T-T26855 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-67 RTIS2674T-T50870 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .biotech · Deactivated
“LFGL2683T-T33762 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-67 NA2631T-T26855 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-67”ICANN
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.dna · Lifestyle · “The foundation for everything you build.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: usable but limited (30-49). The string has genuine semantic pull in two directions: literal (genomics, sequencing, personal-DNA services) and metaphorical (a brand's 'DNA' as its core identity, which matches the applicant's published Lifestyle framing and tagline). That gives it more than vanity appeal, so it sits above the 10-29 band. It falls short of the 50-69 strong-niche band because, by analogy with science-adjacent TLDs such as .bio and .science, serious life-science companies have tended to keep mainstream domains as primary identity and treat niche extensions as secondary or defensive, and that pattern seems likely to persist over the next 5 years; sustained primary-identity demand for .dna is therefore speculative rather than demonstrated. Registration volume figures for those analogous TLDs are unknown, so this is a qualitative analogy, not a measured comparison. Aftermarket value would likely concentrate in a thin head of generic biology and health terms, with little depth behind it. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the 2026 round and published its catalog ahead of Reveal Day; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad speculative positioning rather than a category-specific registry push, which tempers expectations for dedicated vertical marketing. Main market uncertainty: whether consumer-genomics and biotech branding norms shift enough in the next 5 years for a science-literal TLD to become an acceptable primary identity rather than a novelty.