Unstoppable Domains has scrapped plans to integrate nine of its Web3 domains, including .crypto and .bitcoin, into the traditional Domain Name System (DNS). The decision was explained by ICANN requirements and the costs associated with participating in the program.
The list also includes .wallet, .polygon, .nft, .dao, .unstoppable, .zil, and .blockchain. They will continue to exist as on-chain domains but will not, for now, gain the status of regular top-level domains that are natively supported by standard internet infrastructure.
Applications Would Have Cost at Least $2 Million
ICANN opened applications for new top-level domains for the first time in a long while as part of the 2026 round. The application fee is $227,000. Registering nine zones would have cost Unstoppable Domains over $2 million—excluding additional expenses and potential auctions in case of competition for a single name.
The company's founder, Matthew Gould, stated that the combined costs of meeting requirements, submitting applications, and potential bidding exceeded the expected revenue from sales. According to him, this market remains "small and niche."
However, the main obstacle was not just the costs. Management noted that the rules proposed by ICANN for integrating DNS with alternative addressing systems would require registering and paying for each domain in a unified zone, as well as disclosing owner data.
For Unstoppable Domains, this would have affected over 4 million already issued Web3 domains. Some users purchased them several years ago as purely on-chain assets without annual payments and with no intention of registering them in DNS.
"We are not willing to force this on our users or bill them for it," the company explained.
Web3 will be different
Refunds Offered to Buyers
Some of Unstoppable Domains' customers criticized the company. A user under the nickname Double_0_dotx wrote that they had received offers to buy their Web3 domains but declined the deals in anticipation that their value would increase after integration with DNS.
Refunds should be available for all domains not bought via free credits. People held onto the web 3.0 domains on the basis that you were taking them to ICANN. I've had offers I've turned down on this basis.
— 00.x (@Double_0_dotx) August 26, 2026
A user under the pseudonym coinplatypus reported spending thousands of dollars on Unstoppable Domains.
In this context, the company decided to compensate the costs for those who purchased domains after the public announcement of the intention to submit the corresponding zones to ICANN.
Refunds are available for .crypto, .wallet, .polygon, .nft, .bitcoin, .dao, .unstoppable, and .zil—provided the purchase was made no earlier than March 5, 2025. For .blockchain, the count starts from June 5, 2024.
Refund applications are accepted from August 25 to September 25, and processing will take up to 28 days.
At the same time, abandoning ICANN does not stop the operation of the Web3 domains themselves. They will retain all on-chain functions, including replacing long wallet addresses, as noted by Unstoppable Domains. However, full compatibility with the classic DNS for these zones will not happen in the current round.
.gram and .xmr to Continue Their Path to the "Regular Internet"
Unstoppable Domains has not completely abandoned the ICANN program. The company has applied for five other domain zones: .agi, .robot, .gram, .hub, and .xmr.
.AGI and .ROBOT are being developed alongside the 0G ecosystem and are focused on AI agents and machine identity. For Telegram, the company is acting as an infrastructure provider in the process of obtaining .gram, while .xmr is being created jointly with the Monero ecosystem and Cake Wallet. Another application—.hub—is related to Hub Culture.
The ICANN application window closed on August 12—over 1,600 applications for new top-level domains were received in total. A public list is expected to appear no later than nine weeks after the window closed.
According to Unstoppable Domains' forecasts, the first approved zones could appear by mid-2027, and a full-scale launch in DNS is expected from late 2027 to 2028.
Recall that at the end of 2023, Ethereum Name Service head Nick Johnson accused Unstoppable Domains of patent theft.
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