Unstoppable Domains did not file applications for its web3 top-level domains in ICANN's 2026 expansion round and is refunding customers who bought names under them, founder Matthew Gould said on Wednesday.
The decision ends the promise the company had made to holders since 2019: that names like .crypto and .wallet would one day resolve in ordinary browsers, the way .com does.
Six months ago Unstoppable said it would apply. "We've confirmed our intent to submit applications for all of these Unstoppable Originals in ICANN's upcoming gTLD round, representing their next evolution," the company wrote on Feb. 17, naming .ZIL, .Crypto, .Wallet, .NFT, .Bitcoin and .DAO.
"The cost of taking web3 domains through icann in both compliance and application and bidding is higher than what we believe we'd recover in sales," Gould wrote. "It is a better decision to refund people since we made the icann pivot than it is to proceed through icann. And the time to make that decision was now since the applications are due."
ICANN's application window opened on April 30 and closed on Aug. 12 with more than 1,600 primary applications, according to the organization. Evaluation fees were due by Aug. 19. ICANN said it expects to announce the date of Reveal Day, when the applied-for strings become public, in mid-September, and to publish the applications no later than nine weeks after the window closed.
