.identity
Is .identity a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.identity is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and Registered Agents.
A niche TLD for identity and access-management vendors, digital-ID and verifiable-credential projects, and privacy/personal-data services wanting a name that says what they do; secondarily companies wanting a branded login or trust endpoint.
Who is applying, and how much each already runs
One of the 2 is tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Identity Digital and Registered Agents filed 222 applications between them across the round.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .security, held 931 names, June 2026. .trust held 56; .protection held 114. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an abstract concept noun that doubles as the name of a trust/assurance industry, sold to vendors in that vertical who want the category word itself, and it only works if the concept-word can be owned as a credential rather than just described.
Same bet shape — an abstract assurance noun whose value is that registrants borrow credibility from the word, with the same hazard that it carries several unrelated senses (legal instrument, trustworthiness, verification) and no single buyer community owns it.
Another abstract safeguarding noun aimed at the security/insurance services buyer, betting that a defensive concept word reads as a functional label on a URL rather than as vague marketing.
identity and access-management vendors, digital-ID and verifiable-credential projects, and privacy/personal-data services wanting a name that says what they do; secondarily companies wanting a branded login or trust endpoint
What a .identity domain is
.identity 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 .identity domain extension real yet?
.identity 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 .identity domain?
You can’t yet. A .identity 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 .identity was .security, delegated on 17 September 2015.
Is .identity a real TLD?
Not yet. .identity is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .identity is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Registered Agents · now confirmedICANN
- Registered Agents · first recordedRegistered Agents Inc
“RAI2657T-T70724 · Registered Agents Inc · primary · contention set 2026-115 TT2652T-T52120 · Toddler Logic, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-115”ICANN
“The company has also applied for six new generic top-level domains through ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program”Registered Agents Inc
- I place .identity in the 30-49 band (usable but limited), at 35. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no observable sustained demand for the string today and the semantic ground is already occupied by a shorter incumbent: the ccTLD .id has been repurposed by identity-adjacent projects (analogy), and long dictionary gTLDs of this shape — think .solutions or .management (analogy) — have historically produced volume-on-price registrations rather than primary identities with real aftermarkets. It is not in the 10-29 band because the string maps exactly onto a genuine, growing commercial sector (IAM, decentralized identity, verifiable credentials, KYC), and product-endpoint use such as login or trust pages under a company.identity name is a plausible serious use, which lifts it above vanity or joke status. The single applicant on record, Registered Agents Inc, is a company whose core business involves standing behind legal entities, which suggests a coherent thesis for the string but tells us little about broad market pull. My main market uncertainty: whether identity-tech vendors will treat a descriptive TLD as a credibility asset or keep defaulting to .com and .id, since that sector skews conservative on trust signals — and a trust-sensitive category may actively avoid novel TLDs that phishing filters and users find unfamiliar.