ICANN 2026 round

Latest News

Source-backed reporting on announcements, government positions, policy changes, and other developments around the 2026 new gTLD round.

August 24, 2026 Record update .xmr .cspr .avax .ape .self .gate .nexus .india Cake Wallet MAKE Avalanche D3 Unstoppable Domains Human-Centered Computing Foundation Gate Naming Limited

Three of today's new strings belong to a company other than the one that announced them

Nineteen strings joined the tracker. On three of them the announcement names one company and the applicant is another, and under the 2026 rules that difference decides who is evaluated.

Read the story

August 24, 2026 Applicant announcement .meow dotMeow Foundation

dotMeow says its .meow application has been submitted and paid

The Belgian nonprofit has moved beyond intent and publicly confirms a paid ICANN application for .meow, with CORE contracted as its registry service provider.

Read the story

August 24, 2026 Applicant announcement Automattic

Automattic signals a small portfolio for the 2026 new gTLD round

The WordPress.com owner says it is considering a small number of TLDs to complement .blog, but has disclosed neither the strings nor the application count.

Read the story

August 24, 2026 Government position .texas

Texas tells ICANN it will not support a .texas application

The State of Texas has preemptively opposed any outside application for .texas, although no applicant has publicly disclosed the string.

Read the story