.swap
Is .swap a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.swap is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 8 October 2026. It is GoDaddy Registry. Identity Digital named .swap as a backup string for three of its applications: .products, .path and .motors. ICANN deactivated those backups, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .swap as a backup string for its .kek 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
One of the two already run TLDs, 7.22M names between them. Journey To The West runs none.
Will names sell?
A neat fit for crypto swap projects, but serious DeFi brands tend to stick with safer domains, so demand looks niche and price-driven.
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. .swap’s closest 2012 strings hold .exchange 20K, .trade 25K and .auction 10K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .exchange, held 20,093 names, June 2026. .trade held 24,960; .auction held 10,076. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Identical bet: a generic, unowned transaction-mechanism word naming the act of one asset changing hands for another, sold to marketplaces and financial/trading platforms who want the mechanism itself as their identity, and it only works if operators of that mechanism believe the verb outranks their brand.
Same bet shape: a short verb-noun for the core act of transacting, open to any registrant from a barter site to a securities venue, monetized on the word's universality rather than on any single vertical or owner.
Also a mechanism noun rather than a category or brand — it names a specific way a deal gets done — but it is tied to one well-defined commerce format with incumbent platforms, whereas the target's mechanism word is looser and spans more registrant types.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .swap included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
crypto and DeFi teams building token-swap or exchange products, plus speculators chasing brandable name.swap hacks; a smaller secondary pool of barter/exchange marketplaces outside crypto
What a .swap domain is
.swap 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 .swap domain extension real yet?
.swap 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 .swap domain?
You can’t yet. A .swap 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 .swap was .exchange, delegated on 23 April 2014.
Is .swap a real TLD?
Not yet. .swap is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .swap is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Identity Digital · fact correctedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- GoDaddy Registry · first recordedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T20690 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .kek · Deactivated NA2631T-T21073 · Registry Services, LLC · primary NS2662T-T37036 · Neigh Sayer, LLC · replacement string of .motors · Deactivated NS2662T-T44955 · Neigh Sayer, LLC · replacement string of .path · Deactivated NS2662T-T60793 · Neigh Sayer, LLC · replacement string of .products · Deactivated
“.swap · Energy & Mobility · “Trade a depleted battery for a full one, instantly.””Journey To The West Corporation
“.swap · Crypto & Web3 · “Exchange made effortless.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string maps directly onto a real, high-volume activity in crypto (token swapping is a core DeFi verb), and the name.swap suffix-hack pattern is genuinely brandable for the many decentralized-exchange brands that end in 'swap' (general-knowledge observation, not from the verified block). That keeps it out of the vanity band below: this is not event-driven whimsy, the best-fit buyer has a real use. But it does not reach the strong-niche band above because primary-identity adoption needs heavy explaining: established DeFi brands have historically favored .com, .org, .fi and similar for their canonical domains (analogy from observed crypto-brand behavior), crypto users are conditioned to treat unfamiliar TLDs as phishing vectors, and a swap-specific string is narrower than broader crypto strings competing for the same buyers. Analogy: .exchange exists as a generic finance-adjacent TLD and, by analogy, has seen registration volume without becoming a primary-identity default for serious exchanges; .swap likely tracks a similar or slightly better path inside DeFi because of the suffix-hack fit. The applicant (Link Freedom Group) filed more than 300 strings in the 2026 round, which suggests a portfolio-scale operator rather than a single-string community push; that is neutral for the string itself but implies adoption will depend on pricing and registrar distribution rather than a dedicated vertical campaign. Main market uncertainty: whether DeFi-brand naming culture shifts toward suffix-hack primary identities on crypto-themed TLDs or continues treating them as defensive/secondary registrations because of phishing stigma.