Cardano Foundation Prepares ICANN Filing After 74.5% Vote for New Domains

• Cardano community approves .ada and .cardano gTLD plan with 74.5% support.
• Foundation prepares ICANN applications ahead of the 2026 window.
• New domains aim to strengthen Cardano’s digital presence and future ecosystem tools.

The Cardano community has approved the plan to secure the .ada and .cardano generic top-level domains, giving the proposal a clear 74.5% support rate.

This approval allows the Cardano Foundation to move into the preparation phase for ICANN’s next application window, which opens in Q1 2026. The Foundation said it will finance the entire effort itself, without drawing from the ecosystem treasury.

The emergence of the need for “new domain extensions” arises while Cardano prepares itself for the first major ICANN application window since 2012.

The Foundation began the scoping process in 2023, and they formed legal, technical, and governance teams who would help determine the needs and make sure they were ready.

People like Pi, Patrick, and Chris helped lay the foundation by analyzing the vendors available and the management structure in the long run regarding the domain.

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Why These Domains Matter for Cardano

The Foundation believes that the acquisition of .ada and .cardano domains will help increase the visibility of the Cardano network in the larger internet space. The purpose here would be to provide projects and users’ domain names that belong directly to the ecosystem.

Should the ICANN applications be successful, domain choices such as vespr.ada and nmkr.Cardano will become available. The use of these domain names would help in wallet naming, the implementation of identity tools, and the incorporation of solutions like Veridian.

In fact, there are already talks with Ada Handles and Handshake about exploring the means by which the use of the blockchain naming solutions can be integrated with the classic DNS. Besides visibility, the Foundation considers the domains as an infrastructure layer.

This would increase the usability of the Cardano platform because it would connect the navigation systems in Web2 and the applications in Web3, enabling future functionalities such as tokenized domain names and the use of identities across platforms.

Community Oversight Measures and 2026 Application Timeline

The process in ICANN requires the applicant to prove technical superiority, operational capability, and a strategic plan. The one-time costs involved in the application process are estimated at $700,000, and this includes $500,000 in ICANN fees and $200,000 in application support.

The fixed annual costs are projected at $350,000, and these include ICANN obligations, development of the registry software, and related licensing, marketing, and overheads. The other cost, that of variables, would depend on the demand that would be generated once the domain names are

In order to facilitate public oversight, the Foundation plans to initiate a “Community Advisory Group” that will help the Foundation in guiding the management of the domains.

The Foundation also plans to release “operational figures” on a regular basis. Now that approval has been obtained from the community, the Foundation plans to apply in early 2026.

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