.sov
Is .sov a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.sov is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is NameHash Labs. Link Freedom Group named .sov as a backup string for its .hey 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
None of the 2 is tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Link Freedom Group filed 158 applications across the round.
Will names sell?
A niche web ending that hints at 'sovereign' or 'store of value'; a memorable pick for a few crypto and finance brands, not a mainstream choice.
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. .sov’s closest 2012 strings hold .xn--mxtq1m 1 and .xn--zfr164b 1.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .政府, held 1 names, June 2026. .政务 held 1. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short generic word for public authority whose entire value is credential-gating, where only entities that can prove official governmental status may register and trust comes from the verification regime rather than marketing.
Same bet in a narrower administrative framing — a public-authority namespace whose registry's real job is validating that each applicant is a legitimate arm of government, with institutions putting their primary identity on it.
- .overheidnl
Also a sovereign claiming a namespace for its own official identity, but it is a single-government closed namespace rather than an open-to-any-verified-sovereign registry, so the eligibility machinery that makes the target hard is largely absent.
crypto and self-sovereignty projects (store-of-value tokens, self-sovereign identity, decentralization brands), plus a thin tail of finance or 'sovereign wealth' themed ventures looking for a short evocative suffix.
What a .sov domain is
.sov is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Crypto category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .sov domain extension real yet?
.sov 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 .sov domain?
You can’t yet. A .sov 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 .sov was .政府, delegated on 3 March 2015.
Is .sov a real TLD?
Not yet. .sov is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .sov is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- NameHash Labs · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T97743 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .hey · Deactivated NPBC2572-T27351 · Namehash Public Benefit Corporation · primary”ICANN
“NPBC2572-T27351 · Namehash Public Benefit Corporation · primary”ICANN
“.sov · Commerce · “Where worth waits for you.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). 'Sov' is an abbreviation, not a standalone word: its strongest readings are 'sovereign' and crypto's 'store of value' or 'self-sovereign identity', with a secondary marketing reading (share of voice). Each of those audiences is real but small, and none treats a matching suffix as expected identity infrastructure, so most registrations would be defensive or novelty-driven and a serious project would still need to explain the choice. It is not in the 30-49 band because there is no obvious driver of volume or price-led registration demand and the brand signal is ambiguous across meanings, which suppresses both end-use and aftermarket depth. It is not in the 1-9 band because the crypto self-sovereignty niche genuinely uses evocative short suffixes as primary identities, so a modest sustained trickle of real use over the next 5 years is plausible. The applicant's own catalog places it under Commerce with the tagline 'Where worth waits for you.', suggesting a value/worth positioning rather than a crypto positioning; if marketed that way the string's ambiguity likely works against it. Verified facts note the applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed a very large portfolio of strings in the ICANN 2026 round, which says little about per-string marketing depth either way; I treat adoption support as unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether the crypto community coalesces on 'sov' as shorthand for store-of-value/self-sovereign branding, or whether the abbreviation stays too diffuse to anchor demand.