Weekly (archived)Monday, 26 October 2026Sales & valuationAuctions & dropsTLDs & registries

Verisign reports a record 411.6 million domain registrations and sets a December sunrise for .web

Verisign's record registration count and .web sunrise date, a strong aftermarket fortnight, ccTLD rule changes in Australia and Qatar, Afternic tooling, and UDRP disputes.[9][8][21][11][16][3]

411.6MDomain registrations across all TLDsVerisign Domain Name Industry Brief, Q3 2026 record
$171.4MVerisign's outlay on .web.web heads to sunrise in December
$5.5MCombined value of two 7-figure salesIndustry bi-weekly sales chart
$146,000Wellness.net expired-auction priceTop GoDaddy expired sale in DSAD weekly roundup

Key takeaways

Verisign's Q3 brief puts global registrations at an all-time high, and .web now has a December sunrise.[9][8]
An industry publication's latest chart includes eight 6-figure sales and the year's biggest non-.com gTLD deal.[21]
auDA backed off a .au plan that threatened millions of registrations, but only for current registrants.[11]
Afternic released a Portfolio API for managing listings programmatically.[3]
ASI dropped its hyphenated domain for ASI.com after raising a Series C.[15]
Titan's Squarespace deal puts its email product in front of 40% of new registrants worldwide.[20]

This week in domains

Verisign counted more domains under registration than ever this week, while operators in Australia and Qatar showed how quickly ccTLD rules can change for people who already hold names.[9][11][16]

Verisign's record quarter arrives as .web finally gets a launch date

Verisign's Domain Name Industry Brief for the third quarter of 2026 reports 9.9 million names added since the end of the second quarter. That lifted the total across every TLD worldwide to a record, an industry publication reported. Domain Name Wire described it as another registration record for Verisign, which means the growth is not a one-quarter spike. For portfolio operators, the base figure matters because it is the denominator behind renewal pricing, drop volume and expired-inventory supply at the registrars that run auctions. The same Domain Name Wire report confirmed that .web sunrise will run in December. Sunrise is the trademark-holder window, so the general-availability phase that domain investors watch comes after it. A separate Domain Name Wire analysis asked whether Verisign's $171.4 million bet on .web will pay off. That price is the benchmark any launch result will be judged against, and it makes .web one of the most expensive new-gTLD acquisitions on record. Verisign now runs .com, a registry still setting records, alongside a new extension whose economics have to justify a nine-figure entry cost. How the registry prices and positions .web against its own legacy namespace is the open question for anyone weighing non-.com inventory.[9][8][1]

Industry publication Domain Name Wire Domain Name Wire

Aftermarket top end: seven figures, a $146,000 .net drop and Mike Mann's August

An industry publication's bi-weekly chart recorded two 7-figure sales that rank among the six largest public deals of 2026 to date. It also listed eight 6-figure transactions and the year's biggest non-.com gTLD sale, extending what the publication calls a fourth-quarter surge. Expired inventory added its own top end. DSAD's weekly GoDaddy roundup counted 62 expired names that closed above $1,000. TraderX.com, Shane Cultra's Domain of the Day on Oct 21, had already reached $25K by then. Separately, Mike Mann reported six August sales totaling $219,064, ranging from $7,400 to $150,000 and averaging $36,511. That gives a rare look at the price spread on one large retail portfolio.[21][6][13][19]

Wellness.net	$146,000
TraderX.com	$25,550
Bee.org	$24,505
33567.com	$21,500

Leading GoDaddy expired-auction results in DSAD's weekly roundup published Oct 25

Industry publication Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD OnlineDomain.com

The daily expired tape: brandables ran, ccTLD reserves did not

Several names closed far above their early-week marks. Fleeti.com was at $405 in the Oct 20 recap and finished at $2,765 with 72 bids, and flipi.com drew 102 bids. Mid-range closes elsewhere included equipmentlist.com at $460 and vibe.tools at $98. Accomplisher.com sat at $1,830.72 across three consecutive recaps. On NameJet, GoSecure.com rose from $525 with 46 bids on Oct 23 to $827 with 47 bids a day later, and IICG.com climbed from 57 to 58 backorders. The Slovenian names lagged: UX.si sat at 1,000 EUR against a reserve of 49,999 to 99,999 EUR, and distinct.si stayed at $302 on Catched. For comparable pricing, Trav's Oct 22 list compiled 64 expired .com sales ending in Design since 2024, led by UniqueDesign.com at $4,650 and PrestigeDesign.com at $3,550.[25][2][23][7][5][10][22][12]

bver.com	$3,938
fleeti.com	$2,765
flipi.com	$1,925
qualeconviene.it	$1,416
upgradeyourself.com	$1,100.01
focks.com	$906

Completed expired-auction results from DSAD recaps covering Oct 20-24 lists

Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD Domain Shane / DSAD

ccTLD rules shift in Australia and Qatar

auDA, which runs .au and second-level spaces such as .com.au, .net.au and .org.au, retreated from a plan that Smart Money magazine said could have cost the registry over two million registrations. An industry publication notes the reversal covers current registrants only, so anyone registering later may still face the original terms. In Qatar, Domain Name Wire reported new restrictions on .qa and urged registrants to change their nameservers now, which makes this an operational task for holders rather than a policy debate. Both cases show ccTLD eligibility and technical rules changing after names are already held. Domain Name Wire's podcast episode 608 offered a closer look at how one such operator works, going behind the scenes at the .si registry, whose names featured in this week's auctions.[11][16][18]

Industry publication Domain Name Wire Domain Name Wire

Marketplace plumbing: Afternic's API, a vanished pending sale and Titan's reach

Afternic released a Portfolio API, and Domain Name Wire published a walkthrough of how investors can use it. That moves listing management for large portfolios toward scripted workflows. The same platform pairing drew criticism. Elliot Silver found a domain on hold in Afternic that had disappeared from his GoDaddy account, with no purchase receipt he could locate, and argued that pending-sale names should stay visible in the seller's account. Upstream, Titan, the business email company founded by Bhavin Turakhia, signed a Squarespace partnership that places its Essential Email product before a large share of new registrants worldwide, a reminder that registrar checkout is a distribution channel.[3][17][20]

Domain Name Wire DomainInvesting.com Industry publication

In short

ASI moves to ASI.com: ASI, formerly Airspace Intelligence, announced a $325 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation and switched from Airspace-Intelligence.com to the recently acquired ASI.com.[15]
Treasury.com changes hands: Treasury.com moved from Namecheap to corporate registrar Com Laude and switched to AWS nameservers while staying under Whois privacy, prompting DomainInvesting.com to ask whether Stripe is the buyer.[24]
UDRP after failed purchases: A green energy company filed a UDRP complaint after three unsuccessful attempts to buy the domain, Domain Name Wire reported.[14]
Privacy shields and registration dates: ICA UDRP Digest vol. 6.42 argues that when years of Whois privacy hide a registrant change, the creation date settles nothing and suspicion is not proof, citing UDRP Perspectives section 0.16.[26]
DomainSherpa Review: DomainSherpa published its Oct 22 review episode, titled 100 Miles and Running.[4]

What to watch

December 2026.web sunrise opens The trademark window is the first live test of demand for the extension Verisign paid nine figures for, and it precedes the general-availability phase investors will track.[8][1]
auDA terms for future .au registrants The reversal protects only existing holders, which leaves open what rules will apply to new .au and second-level registrations.[11]
.qa nameserver compliance Registrants who have not updated nameservers under the new .qa restrictions remain exposed until they act.[16]

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Dates and launches

26 October 2026 to 27 October 2026
DCD Connect MENA 2026Hosting and cloud
26 October 2026
Domain World Conference 2026Domaining
26 October 2026
Domain World Conference 2026 | 26 October 2026 | Hong KongEvent
26 October 2026 to 29 October 2026
M3AAWC 68Security and privacy
26 October 2026 to 29 October 2026
M3AAWG 68th General MeetingSecurity and privacy
26 October 2026 to 30 October 2026
RIPE 93DNS and governance
26 October 2026 to 30 October 2026
RIPE93DNS and governance
27 October 2026 to 30 October 2026
Black Hat India 2026Security and privacy

See the full agenda

Questions investors are asking

How many domain names are registered worldwide as of Q3 2026?

Verisign's Domain Name Industry Brief for the third quarter of 2026 counts a record 411.6 million registrations across all top-level domains. That total reflects 9.9 million names added since the end of the second quarter. Domain Name Wire characterized the result as another registration record for Verisign.[9][8]

When does .web launch and how much did Verisign pay for it?

Domain Name Wire reports that .web sunrise, the priority window for trademark holders, takes place in December 2026. Verisign's outlay for .web was $171.4 million, and Domain Name Wire has published an analysis questioning whether that investment will pay off. General availability follows sunrise.[8][1]

What did auDA reverse on .au domain names?

According to a Smart Money magazine report cited by an industry publication, auDA, which administers .au and second-level spaces such as .com.au, .net.au and .org.au, backed away from a plan that could have cost the registry over two million registrations. The reversal applies only to current registrants, so the outcome for future registrants is not covered by the change.[11]

What is the Afternic Portfolio API used for?

Afternic has released a Portfolio API that lets domain investors work with their Afternic portfolios programmatically rather than only through the web interface. Domain Name Wire published a guide on how investors can use it, which is most relevant for operators managing large numbers of listings.[3]

Why would a pending-sale domain disappear from a GoDaddy account?

Elliot Silver of DomainInvesting.com found a domain marked on hold in Afternic that no longer appeared in his GoDaddy account, and he could not locate a purchase receipt. He argues that GoDaddy should not pull pending-sale domains from sellers' accounts, because doing so leaves the owner without visibility into the name's status during the sale.[17]

Does a domain's creation date prove when the current owner registered it in a UDRP case?

Not necessarily. ICA UDRP Digest vol. 6.42 examines cases where privacy services hid Whois data for years, leaving complainants unable to show when the current registrant acquired the name. It notes the creation date does not settle that question, cites UDRP Perspectives section 0.16 on determining the date of registration, and argues that suspicion of a registrant change is not proof.[26]

What does the Titan and Squarespace partnership involve?

Titan, the business email company founded by Bhavin Turakhia, announced a partnership with Squarespace that will place Titan's Essential Email product in front of 40% of new domain registrants worldwide, according to an industry publication. The deal makes registrar checkout a distribution channel for Titan's email product.[20]