Domain Market Intelligence Weekly: April 7–13, 2026

Domain Trading Intelligence

Top Sales This Week

Fifteen highest publicly reported domain name sales between April 7 and April 13, 2026. Each entry verified through at least two independent sources unless noted. The .ai extension dominated the top of the chart for the second consecutive week, with genesis.ai leading at $400,000.

# Domain Price (USD) Platform
1 genesis.ai $400,000 Atom.com
2 vesta.ai $160,000 DomainAgents
3 Choice.ai $100,000 Private
4 aqua.xyz $100,000 Afternic
5 artificial.vc $95,000 WeBroker.VC
6 jetpacks.com $65,000 Atom.com
7 lio.ai $60,000 Private
8 19.net $52,088 GoDaddy
9 nucleus.co $50,000 Afternic
10 HappyHorse.com $49,995 Afternic
11 Oria.xyz $49,888 Afternic
12 Stagehand.com $42,000 Private
13 pax.co $35,000 Private
14 metaagent.ai $30,000 Private
15 VXV.com $29,000 GoDaddy

Notable Transaction Details

genesis.ai sold for $400,000 on Atom.com, the week’s largest transaction. This continues the pattern from last week when Free.ai sold for $350,000 on the same platform. Single-word .ai domains are now routinely commanding six-figure prices, with four of the top seven transactions this week involving .ai extensions.

April 9 saw exceptional .ai transaction volume. Six .ai domains sold on that single day, including genesis.ai ($400,000), vesta.ai ($160,000), Choice.ai ($100,000), lio.ai ($60,000), metaagent.ai ($30,000), and noodle.ai ($17,400). Combined, these six transactions totaled over $767,000 in .ai sales on a single day.

aqua.xyz and Oria.xyz posted strong results for the .xyz extension. aqua.xyz sold for $100,000 on Afternic, while Oria.xyz fetched $49,888 on the same platform. These figures indicate continued demand for short, brandable names beyond .com and .ai. artificial.vc ($95,000) was a notable sale in the venture capital TLD space, transacted through WeBroker.VC. 19.net ($52,088) was the week’s top numeric domain sale on GoDaddy.

Industry News

ICANN New gTLD Application Window Less Than Three Weeks Away. The April 30 opening date for the 2026 new gTLD round is approaching, with applications accepted through August 12 at $227,000 per application. Multiple industry sources report that brand owners and speculative applicants are finalizing their submissions. This is the first new gTLD round since the original 2012 program that produced extensions like .app, .dev, and .xyz. (ICANN)

Unstoppable Domains Acquires 10 New ICANN-Accredited Registrar Shells. Unstoppable Domains, the largest onchain registrar, obtained ICANN accreditations for 10 new registrar entities (UnstoppableUS1 through UnstoppableUS10). The company has been preparing multiple gTLD applications for the 2026 round, including .hub (with Hub Culture), .agent (with Sentient Foundation), .twin, and .privacy. Unstoppable said the majority of its business has shifted from Web3 domains to traditional DNS registrations since gaining its initial ICANN accreditation in 2024. (Domain Incite, Unstoppable Domains)

Domain Registration Intelligence

Weekly Registration Overview

New domain registration volumes for major gTLDs as of April 13, 2026 (latest complete data). Data sourced from DomainKits zone file analysis.

TLD 14d MA (daily) 7d MA (daily) Trend Signal
.com 132,081 135,074 7d crossed above 14d: momentum recovering after mid-week dip
.org 9,087 9,129 7d above 14d: sustained upward momentum for the third consecutive week
.net 6,507 6,106 7d below 14d: cooling, down from prior week
.xyz 8,114 8,200 7d above 14d: volatile but stable, driven by April 10 spike (18,737)

The .com 7-day moving average (135,074) crossed back above the 14-day (132,081) as of April 13, reversing the negative crossover noted in last week’s report. The week saw a familiar mid-week pattern: strong Monday-Wednesday figures (145,058 on April 7, 147,489 on April 8, 154,923 on April 9) followed by a sharp weekend decline (102,727 on April 12). April 9 recorded the week’s highest single-day .com count at 154,923.

.org continued its three-week positive streak with the 7d MA (9,129) holding above the 14d MA (9,087). April 8 posted 11,366 new .org registrations, the highest single-day figure in the reporting window. .net showed weakness, with its 7d MA (6,106) falling below the 14d MA (6,507). .xyz saw extreme volatility: April 10 spiked to 18,737 registrations (likely a single-operator bulk event), while most other days ranged between 4,000 and 8,000. Full historical trend data is available on DomainKits Trends.

Hot Keywords in Domain Registrations

Top 5 keywords by 28-day registration volume across all gTLDs, with week-over-week (WoW) momentum comparing the most recent 7-day period (W4) to the prior period (W3):

Keyword 28d Volume W3 W4 WoW Change Top Registrar
ai 47,029 11,914 10,631 -10.8% GoDaddy (13.5%)
my 36,994 9,816 8,177 -16.7% GoDaddy (13.5%)
pro 32,711 7,999 6,918 -13.5% NameCheap (9.4%)
hub 31,753 7,690 7,576 -1.5% NameCheap (11.7%)
group 30,382 7,368 6,903 -6.3% GoDaddy (14.3%)

All five top keywords declined for the second consecutive week. “my” dropped the sharpest at -16.7%, while “hub” proved the most resilient at just -1.5%. The aggregate 28-day volumes for the top 5 are all below last week’s figures, suggesting a broad cooling across the most popular registration keywords.

The notable movers outside the top 5: “family” surged 143.6% from 1,318 to 3,211, with Spaceship as the top registrar at 15.7%, suggesting a possible single-operator campaign. “bet” rose 24.0% from 3,643 to 4,518 with a diversified registrar base (NameCheap 15.0%), indicating organic multi-party interest. “flow” jumped 37.5% from 3,202 to 4,402, led by Dynadot (12.6%). “growth” gained 25.3% to 2,427, driven by Dynadot (10.2%) and Spaceship. On the downside, “claw” continued its steep decline, falling 41.2% from 1,496 to 880, its fourth consecutive week of contraction after peaking in mid-March.

Emerging Keywords

Keywords with sudden registration spikes in the last 7 days. Each entry is assessed for whether the spike reflects multi-party demand (genuine market signal) or single-operator activity (less actionable).

Keyword W3 to W4 Catalyst Signal Quality
bitcoin 173 to 2,490 Onamae.com at 94.6%, forsale_pct 94.7%. Concentrated in .xyz TLD. Speculative inventory build, no specific external catalyst identified. Concentrated: single-operator at Onamae
sbti 0 to 252 Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Spaceship at 32.9% with diversified registrar spread. High .com ratio (0.17) is low for a brand keyword, but multiple registrars involved. Mixed: diversified registrars, low .com ratio
linear 18 to 140 PDR at 85.7%, .com ratio 0.93. May be linked to Linear project management platform interest. High single-registrar concentration. Concentrated: PDR dominant
qwen 7 to 61 Alibaba’s Qwen AI model family. Alibaba Cloud at 24.6%, forsale_pct 31.2%. Diversified registrar base with multiple operators. Moderate: diversified, AI model catalyst, high for-sale rate indicates investor interest
evtol 51 to 96 Continued from last week. Turkticaret at 84.6%, forsale_pct 44.8%. Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft sector. Second consecutive week on the emerging list. Concentrated: single-registrar dominance

The “bitcoin” spike is the largest absolute jump this week at 2,490 new registrations, but with 94.6% concentrated at a single registrar (Onamae.com) and 94.7% immediately listed for sale, this is a textbook speculative portfolio play rather than organic demand. “qwen” is the most interesting signal: tied to Alibaba’s open-source AI model family, it shows diversified registrar participation and a meaningful for-sale rate (31.2%), suggesting genuine investor interest rather than a single operator. “evtol” appears on the emerging list for the second consecutive week, though registration activity remains concentrated at a single Turkish registrar.

Premium Domain Intelligence

Premium .com domain changes tracked from DomainKits Changes, covering short-character and high-value English-word .com domains. This section covers expirations and new registrations (drop-catches) only. Transfers are excluded because the underlying reason cannot be confirmed from public data alone.

Notable Expirations

3-Letter .com Expirations (April 7 – 13, 2026): No 3-letter .com domains entered expiration this week, down from one (ddw.com) last week.

5-8 Letter .com Expirations:

Domain TLD Count Previous Registrar
bluerain.com 40 Network Solutions
nosolo.com 27 Tecnocratica
bluetop.com 25 Network Solutions
portlink.com 23 NameBright
bitagent.com 20 NameBright

bluerain.com leads the 5-8 letter group with 40 TLDs registered across the same prefix, previously held at Network Solutions. nosolo.com (27 TLDs) was held by a Spanish registrar (Tecnocratica), suggesting prior use in Spanish-language markets. bitagent.com (20 TLDs) intersects both the crypto (“bit”) and AI agent keyword spaces. Cross-extension counts this week are lower than last week’s leader (aistock.com at 67 TLDs), but bluerain.com’s 40 TLDs represents meaningful cross-TLD demand.

New Registrations (Drop-Catches)

Premium .com domains that were re-registered after expiration, typically through competitive drop-catch services:

Domain TLD Count Caught By
callboy.com 35 Wide Right Domains
fasttap.com 12 Lemon Shark Domains
keyblue.com 8 SnapNames
wetoyo.com 8 Fly-Digital
laseco.com 7 Gname

callboy.com was the highest-profile drop-catch at 35 TLDs, caught by Wide Right Domains from its previous home at NameCheap. fasttap.com (12 TLDs) was caught by Lemon Shark Domains, combining two high-value tech keywords. The drop-catch landscape this week was more competitive than last week, with multiple operators (Wide Right, Lemon Shark, SnapNames, Fly-Digital, Gname) each capturing notable names. For complete domain change data, visit DomainKits Changes.

Weekly Insight

The .ai extension’s dominance in the secondary market intensified this week. genesis.ai led all transactions at $400,000 on Atom.com, and April 9 alone saw six .ai domains transact for a combined $767,000+. This follows last week’s Free.ai ($350,000) and the April 4 Spaceship batch event. Two consecutive weeks of six-figure .ai sales across multiple platforms (Atom.com, DomainAgents, Private) suggest sustained institutional demand rather than isolated events. Meanwhile, the .xyz extension posted two strong results with aqua.xyz ($100,000) and Oria.xyz ($49,888), both on Afternic.

On the registration side, the broad cooling trend continued with all top 5 keywords declining for the second straight week. However, .com registrations showed a positive signal: the 7d MA crossed back above the 14d MA after last week’s negative crossover, driven by strong midweek volumes (April 9 peaked at 154,923). Among emerging keywords, “bitcoin” dominated in raw volume but was entirely single-operator speculative inventory. “qwen” stands out as the more actionable signal, with diversified registrar participation tied to Alibaba’s AI model family. With ICANN’s new gTLD application window now less than three weeks away (April 30), the coming weeks may see increased domain speculation around potential new extension keywords. For more weekly data and analysis, visit ABTdomain.


Data Sources: Registration trends and keyword data from DomainKits Trends. Premium domain changes from DomainKits Changes. Sales figures reflect publicly reported transactions and do not capture private deals without disclosure. Registration data covers gTLDs; ccTLD coverage varies by registry policy. This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.