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Domains
in a Slower Market, Faster Future: What the 2025
Survey Signals for 2026
By
Simone Catania
Global Content & Communications Manager at
InterNetX
As we
moved into 2025, the domain industry was juggling
mixed signals.
On one
side, the hard numbers showed a cooling market: in
2024, global domain registrations grew by just about
1.2%, reaching around 364.3
million domains at the beginning of 2025.
Growth was modest, with legacy gTLDs losing ground
while new gTLDs and ccTLDs provided most of the
uplift. On the other side, sentiment among domain
investors and industry professionals was noticeably
more upbeat.
For
the past few years, InterNetX
and Sedo
have run a global sentiment survey before publishing
the Global Domain Report. That survey –
answered by domain investors, brokers, registrars,
registries and digital professionals – adds
something raw data alone can’t provide: how the
people who live off domains are actually thinking
and planning.
How
did sentiment line up with what really happened in
2024/2025? What does it tell us about where domains
are heading next?
Demand
vs. reality: a cautiously optimistic industry
Last’s
year survey by InterNetX and Sedo painted a clear
picture: more respondents expected to increase
their registrations in 2025 than to cut them.
Roughly:
-
Close to four in
ten expected to register more domains in
2025.
-
Only about one
in four expected any contraction, and just a
small minority anticipated a sharp drop.
So
even as macro conditions stayed choppy, the people
closest to the market leaned toward expansion,
not retreat.
Set
that against the actual market data: global
domain registrations in 2024 were up
just over 1% year-on-year. What does that gap
between sentiment and growth say? Investors
aren’t expecting a gold rush – but they are
still playing offense. Activity is shifting away
from indiscriminate volume toward more selective
registrations: new gTLDs that match verticals,
ccTLDs for local presence, and premium targets
rather than pure “hand-reg and hope”.
For
2025, sentiment was mildly bullish in a slow-growth
environment. The next question is whether that
confidence holds – or fractures – as we head
toward the next new gTLD round and a much more
fragmented landscape.
AI,
policy, Web3 and new gTLDs: the big forces reshaping
namespaces
When
we asked which emerging trends are shaping the
domain industry the most, three themes dominated:
1.
AI & machine
learning
Almost
half of survey participants pointed to AI
and machine learning as the top force
reshaping the domain space. For investors, AI is
both a topic (AI-themed keywords, .ai
domains)
and a tool that will sharpen
competition in discovery and pricing.
2.
Digital policy &
regulation
Digital
policy came in just behind AI in the survey.
Unsurprisingly, the acronym that keeps popping up is
NIS2
– the EU’s updated Network and Information
Security Directive. Even though the survey was
global and NIS2 is an EU piece of legislation,
respondents clearly sense its importance:
·
Only
a relatively small minority feel very familiar.
·
Yet
more than half already worry about compliance
costs, and about half are
concerned about the technical adjustments
it requires.
3.
New
gTLDs
The
data behind the report confirms what many in the
survey expect: New gTLDs have grown to nearly 37
million registrations, roughly a 922%
increase over a decade. They now represent
around 10% of the global domain base.
With the next new gTLD program
expected to land around 2026, the
namespace is likely to undergo another big
expansion.
4.
Blockchain/Web3
domains
The
survey results around blockchain and Web3
domains
were particularly nuanced. On
the familiarity front:
·
Roughly
two-thirds of respondents said
they’re at least somewhat familiar with
blockchain-based naming services.
·
About
one-third said they’re not
familiar at all.
Ownership
and intent tell a similar story:
·
More
than half
do not (yet) own or seriously consider owning Web3
domains.
·
But
roughly a third already do, or are
actively considering it.
When
we asked how important blockchain will be for the
future of domains:
·
Nearly
four out of five respondents see it
as at least somewhat important for the long
term.
·
Only
around one out of five believe it
won’t matter.
In
other words: most of the industry is watching
closely, a meaningful minority is already
experimenting, and only a small group is
outright dismissive.
Meanwhile,
InterNetX has taken an important structural step: It
has announced plans to tokenize domains
partnering with D3 leveraging the Doma Protocol, a DNS-compliant blockchain platform designed for DomainFi. The
partnership aims to bridge traditional Web2 domains
into major Web3 ecosystems (including networks like
Solana, Base and Avalanche), enabling use cases such
as fractional ownership, crypto-based
trading and new DeFi-style domain financing models.
That’s
exactly the kind of move survey participants were
anticipating: Web3 not as a novelty extension living
in a separate universe, but as an additional
layer of utility and liquidity for the
domains investors already own.
Premium
names sales: steady, selective, tech-heavy
Premium
domains remain central to many investors’
strategies, and the survey reflects an overall view
of steady but not explosive demand: around one
in six respondents expected demand for premium
domains to increase in 2025, nearly half
expected it to remain about the same, and the
remainder anticipated some level of decrease.
On
the data side, several signals stand out: InterNetX
saw strong premium creation activity in specific new
gTLDs, with .art, .click and .help generating a
notably high volume of newly created premium
domains.
While
Sedo’s 2024 aftermarket stats point to a stable
market rather than boom or bust, with an average
sale price of about $2,345,
a median just under $600,
and roughly 350
different TLDs changing hands. The gap between
average and median tells an important story: a
handful of very big sales pull the average up, but the
typical deal is still in the mid-three-figure range.
TLD
mix and keywords from Sedo reinforce themes from the
survey:
·
.com
continues to account for the lion’s share of
trades by volume, with .de a
powerhouse ccTLD and .org/.net
still well‑established alternatives.
·
Keyword
trends lean heavily toward AI and technology,
crypto and finance, plus e‑commerce
and online services – exactly the sectors
most survey respondents expect to remain hot in
2025.
If
your portfolio is skewed toward these areas, the
data and the sentiment are aligned. The bigger
challenge is differentiating within those highly
contested spaces.
The
mood of the market: mature, realistic, still leaning
forward
Finally,
we asked a simple but revealing question: How
optimistic are you about the future of domain
investments in 2025?
The
answers clustered into three almost equal groups,
with just under 40%
feeling optimistic or very optimistic, roughly four
in ten expecting things to stay about the same,
and just under
20% feeling pessimistic or very pessimistic.
This
is what a mature asset class looks like. Most
investors no longer expect every hand-reg to turn
into a big win, but they also don’t see the market
collapsing, even with slower growth and more
regulation. Instead, the overall mood is one of
cautious optimism. Investors are spreading their
bets across different TLDs, regions and niches,
while also showing more interest in new layers such
as Web3 and AI-driven tools.
Take
the Survey 2026 and Secure Your Early Access to the
Global Domain Report 2026
Everything
you’ve just read comes from last year’s
survey and the data that followed. Now it’s time
to write the next chapter.
Before
InterNetX and Sedo compile the Global Domain
Report 2026, we’re once again asking the
people who live and breathe domains – DNJournal
readers, investors, brokers, registry and registrar
professionals, brand owners, service providers
– to share how they see the road ahead. Here’s
the ask:
* Take
this year’s survey
– add your perspective as an investor or domain
expert.
* Preregister
for the Global Domain Report 2026
– you’ll be among the first to receive the full
report, including this year’s survey results,
fresh market data and expert commentary from across
the domain universe.
The
numbers in the report tell us what is
happening. Your survey answers tell us why.
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