.hop
Is .hop a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.hop is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Link Freedom Group filed 158 applications across the round.
Will names sell?
A playful short word with a few small fan bases (beer, hip-hop, links) but no group that truly needs it as their main web address.
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. .hop’s closest 2012 strings hold .fly 4, .run 140K and .surf 49K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .fly, held 4 names, June 2026. .run held 140,139; .surf held 48,685. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short common English motion verb sold as an open brandable namespace whose value comes from idiomatic punch ("hop to it") rather than any registrant category, with the same travel/mobility vertical as its most obvious anchor.
Same bet: an everyday one-syllable verb offered as a generic string that must earn registrations from wordplay and short-brand seekers across unrelated industries, since no single trade owns or would defend the word.
Same bet: a short polysemous action verb straddling a literal activity meaning and a looser figurative one, so it depends on casual and small-brand registrants rather than an organized industry putting its primary identity there.
craft breweries and beer brands playing on 'hops', hip-hop artists and culture projects, and makers of link-shortener or redirect tools wanting a short verb-like domain
What a .hop domain is
.hop is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .hop domain extension real yet?
.hop 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 .hop domain?
You can’t yet. A .hop 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 .hop was .fly, delegated on 15 September 2014.
Is .hop a real TLD?
Not yet. .hop is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .hop is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T23581 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary”ICANN
“.hop · Lifestyle · “Take the leap, land softly.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a short, clean English word with several plausible hooks over the next 5 years: brewing culture ('hops'), hip-hop and dance culture, rabbit/spring seasonal themes, and the networking sense of a 'hop' that suits link shorteners and redirect services. That breadth is also its weakness: no single vertical is likely to treat .hop as its primary-identity default, so it does not reach the strong-niche band (50-69), where adoption is sustained and explainable within one community. It sits above the vanity band (10-29) because the word is a real verb with genuine commercial adjacency (beverage brands, music projects, short-link tooling) that can drive steady low-volume registrations rather than purely event-driven novelty. By analogy (flagged as analogy), beverage- and lifestyle-themed TLDs such as .beer and .pub have historically seen modest registration bases and thin aftermarkets rather than category-standard status, and single-syllable playful strings tend to sell on price or promotion. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists .hop under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Take the leap, land softly.', consistent with a broad-portfolio play rather than a vertical community bid; portfolio economics usually mean marketing attention per string is diluted, which caps adoption likelihood (analogy from prior portfolio registries). Main market uncertainty: whether any one vertical, most plausibly craft brewing or short-link infrastructure, coalesces around the string strongly enough to give it a real identity, versus it remaining a scattered novelty namespace.