Unstoppable Domains withdraws ICANN application and refunds customers

Unstoppable Domains is withdrawing from the ICANN 2026 expansion round and is reimbursing customers who bought domain names under extensions such as .crypto, .wallet, .NFT, .Bitcoin, .DAO and .ZIL. Founder Matthew Gould announced this on Wednesday. The decision breaks a promise the company has made since 2019: that these Web3 domains would one day work in ordinary browsers, just like .com domains do.

In short:

• Unstoppable Domains will not submit an application to ICANN for its Web3 domains and is reimbursing customers.
• Founder Matthew Gould says the costs of compliance, the application and bidding procedures are higher than the expected revenues.
• The domains will continue to function as blockchain assets for crypto payments, but will not be integrated into the regular DNS system for now.

From promise to reversal

Less than six months ago, Unstoppable Domains announced it actually did want to take part in the ICANN gTLD round. On 17 February, the company wrote on its own blog that it planned to submit applications for all six original extensions, with the goal of bringing them from the blockchain to the wider internet. If ICANN approved the applications, the domains would work universally in browsers and also gain email functionality.

That plan has now definitively fallen through. The application deadline was 12 August and the company let it pass without submitting.

Costs do not outweigh revenues

Gould explains in a statement why the company is backtracking. According to him, the costs of regulatory compliance, the application process and possible bids are higher than the company expects to earn back from the sale of domains.

Gould also states that during this process, Unstoppable Domains lost more money than it earned from the sale of Web3 domains. Customers who bought domains after the announcement of the plans to integrate the DNS system are already being reimbursed. This means the company also misses out on those revenues.

The founder describes the market for Web3 domains as small and niche, and says that market cannot support multiple generic top-level domains in this round. He partly attributes the overestimated market sentiment to the crypto and NFT hype of 2021.

Customers feel let down

Not everyone is satisfied with the explanation. Some users who held domains for years in the expectation that Unstoppable Domains would make the move to ICANN are reacting with disappointment.

As Wu Blockchain reported, Unstoppable Domains will reimburse the domains in question to eligible customers. The domains will remain available as blockchain assets for crypto payments, but will not for the time being join the traditional DNS system used by ordinary browsers.