.wire
Is .wire a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.wire is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 8 October 2026. It is Oinkadot. Identity Digital named .wire as a backup string for four of its applications: .lock, .hack, .gym and .crew. ICANN deactivated those backups, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Starlight (Namecheap) named .wire as a backup string for two of its applications: .mesh and .grid. ICANN deactivated those backups, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A real English word with news-media and payments appeal, but no buyer group needs it, so demand looks modest and price-driven.
news and media publications that already brand as a 'wire' (newswire-style outlets, vertical news sites), plus payments and fintech brands riffing on wire transfers, and electrical or hardware businesses as a smaller tail.
One of 25 strings the Oinkadot partnership (Ray King of Porkbun and Todd Han of Dynadot) applied for in the ICANN 2026 round, per Domain Name Wire's exclusive.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .crew application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .grid application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .mesh application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .gym application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .hack application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .lock application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short, unowned, metaphor-heavy common noun for connection that no single company can claim, sold broadly as a semantic alternative to .com/.net where the word's evocative reach — not a defined industry — is the whole value proposition.
Same bet in plainer form: an open connectivity/infrastructure noun whose registry has to convince telecom, media, and any group calling itself a network to put primary identity on a category word rather than a brand.
Also a polysemous communications noun (broadcast, distribution, conduit) that must monetize several unrelated buyer pools at once, though it skews harder to media than .wire's split across telecom, news, money transfer, and electrical trades.
What a .wire domain is
.wire is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Other category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .wire domain extension real yet?
.wire 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 .wire domain?
You can’t yet. A .wire 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 .wire was .link, delegated on 18 January 2014.
Is .wire a real TLD?
Not yet. .wire is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .wire 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
- Starlight (Namecheap) · first recordedICANN
- Starlight (Namecheap) · first recordedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Oinkadot · now confirmedICANN
- Oinkadot · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“AM2619T-T35024 · Acid Medal, LLC · replacement string of .crew · Deactivated AM2619T-T42943 · Acid Medal, LLC · replacement string of .gym · Deactivated AM2619T-T50862 · Acid Medal, LLC · replacement string of .hack · Deactivated AM2619T-T58781 · Acid Medal, LLC · replacement string of .lock · Deactivated EEI2686T-T55898 · Elnath Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .grid · Deactivated MEI2662T-T89711 · Miaplacidus Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .mesh · Deactivated OI2692T-T66958 · Oinkadot Inc · primary”ICANN
“A new partnership has applied for 25 top level domain names in this year's ICANN TLD expansion round.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a short, common English word with several plausible meanings: the newswire sense (many media outlets brand as 'X Wire'), the wire-transfer sense for payments, and the electrical sense. That versatility supports steady registrations, and a media outlet could plausibly use name.wire as a primary identity. By analogy (flagged as analogy), semantically adjacent word TLDs aimed at media and money have generally produced modest, price-sensitive registration bases rather than category-standard status, and nothing suggests .wire would outperform that pattern; volume, renewal, and aftermarket figures for those analogs are unknown. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no single category where 'wire' is the default vocabulary for a primary web identity; every adoption story needs explaining, and the wire-fraud connotation may make serious finance brands cautious. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is genuinely meaningful, brandable across at least two real segments, and supports credible primary-identity use for media properties rather than only novelty registrations. Applicant context, stated neutrally from the verified facts: the applicant Oinkadot is a partnership between the CEOs of consumer registrars Porkbun and Dynadot, applied for 25 strings in the ICANN 2026 round paying $5.675 million in fees; principals who run consumer registrars plausibly improve retail distribution, which mildly supports adoption likelihood. Main market uncertainty: whether news and media publications, the best-fit buyer group, actually migrate 'wire'-branded identities onto the TLD at meaningful scale, or keep 'wire' inside the second level on .com as they largely appear to today.