ENS officially announced its application for the .ENS top-level domain, marking a step towards the ICANN system for the Web3 naming system.

March 18, 2026 — Ethereum Name Service (ENS) officially announced that it will formally submit an application for the .ENS top-level domain in ICANN's new round of general top-level domain (gTLD) expansion plan.

As the most representative decentralized naming system on the Ethereum blockchain, ENS was previously known for its .eth domain, having registered approximately 1.6 million .eth names. These are primarily used to replace complex cryptocurrency wallet addresses, providing a convenient "readable domain = wallet address" experience. ENS has also bridged the gap with traditional domains such as .com and .net, providing naming interoperability between Web3 and the traditional internet.

The choice of .ENS instead of .eth stems from ICANN rules: .eth, as the country code (ccTLD) for Ethiopia, is reserved and cannot be opened for application as a new gTLD. ENS stated that applying for .ENS is a crucial step in incorporating the Web3 naming system into the global internet domain root system, and also provides existing ENS users with broader application scenarios and compliance guarantees.

Key Highlights ✨

Identity Extension: .ENS will become the top-level domain identifier for the ENS brand, strengthening its authoritative position in the Web3 naming field.

Compliance Exploration: This marks the first time a decentralized naming system has proactively aligned itself with ICANN's traditional domain name system, exploring a compliant path for cross-ecosystem naming.

User Value: In the future, .ENS domains are expected to be compatible with both blockchain wallets and traditional websites, bridging the traffic gap between Web2 and Web3.

Industry Background and Timeline⏳

ICANN's new round of general top-level domain (gTLD) application window will officially open on April 30, 2026, just 40 days from today (March 21). This is the first time since 2012 that ICANN has opened new gTLD applications on such a large scale, considered a crucial window for restructuring the global domain name industry.

For the Web3 field, this application is not only a breakthrough for the ENS project alone, but also represents the formal entry of decentralized naming systems into the traditional internet root domain name system. It is expected to bring broader compliance recognition, application scenarios, and commercial value to blockchain domain names, and will profoundly influence the future integration of Web3 and the traditional internet.

ENS has submitted a formal comment on the name conflict between alternative root domains such as .eth and ICANN, and further developments will continue to attract the attention of the entire domain name and Web3 industry.