.token
Is .token a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.token is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital, EchoStar and Link Freedom Group.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the four already run TLDs, 14.81M names between them. One runs one of .token's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .cash. Journey To The West and Link Freedom Group run none.
Will names sell?
A crypto-flavored web address that token projects might grab cheaply, but few serious teams would make it their main identity.
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. .token’s closest 2012 strings hold .cloud 552K, .app 1.48M and .cash 21K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .cloud, held 551,867 names, June 2026. .app held 1,478,674; .cash held 21,107. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: take the defining abstraction-noun of a technology wave, already a plain English word, and sell it as the identity layer for the companies riding that wave, which only pays off if that vocabulary stays central instead of becoming invisible plumbing.
Same bet on the generic name for the atomic unit a technology wave produces, where the intended registrants are the makers/issuers of those units rather than the general public.
Overlaps only on being a short generic money-noun aimed at value-transfer businesses; it is an everyday consumer word with no technology precondition, whereas the target is an issuer-side instrument noun that means something only inside one specific technical stack.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .token included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × EchoStar
- Link Freedom Group × EchoStar
crypto and web3 teams launching or promoting a token, plus speculators registering token-name matches during market upswings; secondarily, exchanges and tooling vendors wanting keyword-exact landing pages.
What a .token domain is
.token is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Crypto category. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .token domain extension real yet?
.token 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 .token domain?
You can’t yet. A .token 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 .token was .cloud, delegated on 26 June 2015.
Is .token a real TLD?
Not yet. .token is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .token is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“EDCL2689T-T95368 · ECHO Domain Co L.L.C. · primary · contention set 2026-233 GEL2647T-T82917 · Glass Emotion, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-233 LFGL2683T-T21444 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-233”ICANN
“.token · Future Tech · “The unit that powers models and markets alike.””Journey To The West Corporation
“.token · Crypto & Web3 · “Worth more than the sum.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is the exact generic term for the asset class it serves, which should drive volume registrations during crypto bull cycles, and the applicant's own catalog places it in Crypto & Web3 (verified). But it is not in the 50-69 band because sustained primary-identity use looks doubtful by analogy: serious crypto projects have tended to anchor their identity on incumbent or general-purpose TLDs, or on non-DNS blockchain namespaces, rather than on crypto-keyword DNS extensions (analogy, not asserted fact), and 'yourname.token' reads as a subordinate asset page rather than a company home. It is above the 10-29 band because demand is recurring rather than one-off: new tokens launch continuously, the keyword is short, globally understood, and semantically exact, so a real if thin registration base and defensive-registration demand are plausible over the next 5 years. The word 'token' also carries securities-adjacent regulatory connotation in several jurisdictions, which may make compliance-minded projects avoid it as a primary identity (qualitative judgment, not a factual claim about any regulator). Main market uncertainty: whether web3 identity settles on DNS at all versus onchain naming systems; if DNS wins that fight, a keyword-exact crypto TLD gains more headroom than scored here.