.sign
Is .sign a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.sign is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XServer, Identity Digital, .top (Zhongze), Oinkadot and Link Freedom Group. XYZ Registry named .sign as a backup string for its .automation application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Radix named .sign as a backup string for its .fix application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Aruba named .sign as a backup string for its .bit 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
Two of the five already run TLDs, 22.24M names between them. Link Freedom Group, Oinkadot and XServer run none.
Will names sell?
A meaningful verb domain for e-signature, signage, and sign-in products, but a niche choice that needs explaining rather than a default.
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. .sign’s closest 2012 strings hold .pay 882, .click 873K and .book 2.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .pay, held 882 names, June 2026. .click held 873,213; .book held 2. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short everyday verb naming a trust-bearing transactional action, whose natural occupants are financial/workflow services putting product identity on the verb itself, and which only works if the category's incumbents accept a shared action namespace instead of each hoarding a brand TLD.
Same bet on an abstract digital-action verb-noun that names no industry and owns no pre-existing community, so its value rests entirely on the word reading as a call to action inside a domain rather than on any identifiable registrant base.
Same structural condition: an ordinary word with two disjoint buyer populations (verb-sense transactors vs noun-sense object/trade businesses), so the string's worth hinges on which meaning captures the namespace rather than on the size of either audience.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .sign included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Radix
- Link Freedom Group × Radix
e-signature and document-workflow startups, signage and wayfinding businesses, and products wanting a memorable sign-in or call-to-action address; secondarily crypto tooling around transaction signing.
What a .sign domain is
.sign is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .sign domain extension real yet?
.sign 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 .sign domain?
You can’t yet. A .sign 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 .sign was .pay, delegated on 10 August 2016.
Is .sign a real TLD?
Not yet. .sign is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .sign is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Aruba · now deactivated backupICANN
- Aruba · now abandonedICANN
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- Aruba · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
- Oinkadot · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 8 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T45326 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · replacement string of .bit · Deactivated HKZI2636T-T13529 · Hong Kong Zhongze International Limited · primary · contention set 2026-212 LFGL2683T-T82659 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-212 OI2692T-T59039 · Oinkadot Inc · primary · contention set 2026-212 PB2674T-T69466 · Paws Button, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-212 RTIS2674T-T29496 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .fix · Deactivated XI2694T-T60543 · XRegistry Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-212 XL2625T-T74498 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .automation · Deactivated
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
HKZI2636T-T13529 · Hong Kong Zhongze International Limited · primary · contention set 2026-212 LFGL2683T-T82659 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-212 OI2692T-T59039 · Oinkadot Inc · primary · contention set 2026-212 PB2674T-T69466 · Paws Button, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-212 XI2694T-T60543 · XRegistry Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-212
“Aruba S.p.A., which operates the .cloud top level domain, is expanding its domain portfolio. The company told Domain Name Wire that it applied for 39 top level domains in this year's new TLD round. That number includes replacement strings. [...] The company applied for the following strings as primary or replacement: aid, all, ask, beta, bit, bnb, cart, ciao, daily, demo, easy, fix, gaming, gen, genius, gym, happy, hello, hola, human, kit, lab, mars, max, moon, omg, pec, pop, rem, roma, sign, sito, super, tag, tex, vps, yes, zen, zzz”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
“A new partnership has applied for 25 top level domain names in this year's ICANN TLD expansion round.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“.sign · Commerce · “Every signal matters.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string has genuine semantic pull across several real markets: electronic signatures and document workflows, physical signage, authentication flows (sign in / sign up), and cryptographic signing, plus call-to-action and domain-hack appeal (a petition or contract page ending in .sign reads naturally). That is real utility, so it sits above the 10-29 vanity band, where demand is shallow and event-driven; here a serious e-sign or signage business could plausibly register and use one. It does not reach the 50-69 strong-niche band because no cohesive buyer community treats the string as an identity marker: e-signature is a consolidated market dominated by entrenched brands on legacy domains, signage firms are local service businesses with weak new-TLD adoption habits, and the meanings fragment the demand rather than concentrating it. By analogy (flagged as analogy), verb TLDs with a strong professional community, such as design-oriented strings, have sustained niche identity use, while verb strings without a community behind them have tended to settle into low-price volume registrations and redirects rather than primary identities; .sign looks closer to the latter over the next 5 years. Aftermarket value would likely concentrate in a handful of dictionary-word and hack combinations rather than broad liquidity. Applicant facts are neutral context: the applicant filed a very large portfolio of strings, which suggests portfolio economics rather than a single-string community-building push, tempering expectations of heavy category marketing. Main market uncertainty: whether any credible e-signature or authentication vendor adopts a .sign address as its primary public identity, which would reframe the string from generic verb to category signal.