.layer
Is .layer a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .layer in its own right, as of 8 October 2026. Identity Digital named .layer as a backup string for its .change application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Identity Digital named .layer as a backup string for its .chain application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Identity Digital named .layer as a backup string for its .admin application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Oinkadot named .layer as a backup string for its .stack application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A flexible tech word that suits infrastructure and crypto brands, but it is a vanity suffix, not a namespace people reach for first.
crypto infrastructure teams, developer-tool and data-platform startups, and design or creative studios wanting a compound brand like name.layer
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .stack application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .admin application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .chain application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .change application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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.
Same bet: an abstract structural/spatial common noun with no native registrant class, sold as a brandable suffix that gets its meaning from whatever the registrant puts in front of it rather than from a category of buyers who already call themselves that.
Also an open abstract container noun whose value rests on broad brandable appeal across unrelated buyers, though it carries a softer consumer/community connotation where the target leans technical.
The 2012 bet on a technical-architecture abstraction becoming an identity word — a stack concept rather than a product or profession — which is the same wager the target makes, but .cloud already had a named industry claiming it in 2012 while an abstraction-layer word has a more diffuse buyer.
What a .layer domain is
.layer is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .layer in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .layer domain extension real yet?
.layer 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 .layer domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .layer name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .layer was .zone, delegated on 14 January 2014.
Is .layer a real TLD?
Not yet. .layer is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .layer as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“OI2692T-T27363 · Oinkadot Inc · replacement string of .stack · Deactivated TCL2632T-T80026 · Tidal Case, LLC · replacement string of .admin · Deactivated TCL2632T-T87945 · Tidal Case, LLC · replacement string of .chain · Deactivated TCL2632T-T95864 · Tidal Case, LLC · replacement string of .change · Deactivated”ICANN
“OI2692T-T85687 · Oinkadot Inc · replacement string of .hack”ICANN
“A new partnership has applied for 25 top level domain names in this year's ICANN TLD expansion round.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a genuine English generic with compound-friendliness (data.layer, base.layer, app.layer) and carries current meaning in crypto (layer-1/layer-2 networks), software architecture, and design tooling, so some real primary-identity use is plausible over the next 5 years. It is not in the 50-69 band because none of those audiences treats 'layer' as a category word they would need an address under: crypto projects already route identity through established general-purpose and country-code extensions and their own on-chain naming, and 'layer' is a descriptor of a product class rather than the class itself, so adoption would need explaining and demand would be event-driven. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is broad, serious, and brandable rather than a joke or a single-event term, and it reads as credible in a technical context. By analogy (flagged as analogy), single-word tech generics like .network, .cloud, .systems and .stack have tended to produce volume on promotional pricing and a thin aftermarket rather than a primary-identity default; .layer looks like a member of that family, with slightly more crypto pull. The record shows two applications, both deactivated, from Oinkadot Inc (primary string .stack) and Tidal Case, LLC / Identity Digital (primary string .admin); taken neutrally, that suggests neither applicant treated .layer as a primary bet, which lowers expected channel investment and therefore adoption, though the TLD is scored as if delegated. Main market uncertainty: whether the rollup/L2 ecosystem adopts a naming convention around 'layer' strongly enough to make it a recognizable crypto-infrastructure address, or whether that demand stays on incumbent extensions.