Name Space Targets Ten New TLDs in Upcoming ICANN Expansion

I've watched several new TLD rounds come and go, and the 2026 ICANN application window is shaping up to be the most interesting one yet for portfolio owners. Name Space LLC just filed for ten new top-level domains, according to Domain Name Wire — and the strings they're chasing tell you a lot about where the next wave of digital real estate demand may be heading.

What's in Name Space's basket

The company is led by Gerardo Aristizabal, CEO of Colombia's CCI, and is backed by investors in Latin America. Five of its ten strings —.mars,.hello,.iii,.yyy, and.brain — are reportedly in contention with Link Freedom Group, which means those applications won't sail through uncontested.

Aristizabal isn't new to this game. He applied for.blog,.news, and.legal in the 2012 round and ultimately won.blog through a confidential private auction reportedly worth around $20 million, in partnership with Automattic. Name Space LLC is structurally separate from his existing registrar and.co operations, but the playbook — pick premium strings, ride contention to better terms — feels familiar. The company plans to use Team Internet as its registry service provider for any successful strings, the same partner that worked with CCI on the most recent.co contract.

Why the 2026 round matters to your portfolio

The broader context is bigger than Name Space alone. ICANN's 2026 window closed on August 12 with over 1,600 applications filed, and Telegram publicly filed for.gram as well, per The News International. The application fee alone runs about $227,000 per string, before legal, technical, and objection costs add up.

For domain investors, three things matter here:

• Reveal Day is scheduled for late October 2026, no later than nine weeks after the application window closed. That's when the full applicant map drops and contention sets become visible.
• Strings like.mars drawing multiple applicants historically leads to private auctions. If you're holding a defensible second-level in any of these contested TLDs, that auction activity can shift perceived value.
• ICANN's process can stretch well beyond a year, including public objection windows. Any thesis you build around these new TLDs needs to price in holding costs and delayed liquidity.

What I'd watch next

I'd keep an eye on the full Reveal Day list first — contention sets are where the action is, and ten applications from a single experienced operator signals serious capital behind this round. Second, watch for any replacement strings Name Space announces if its initial picks face formal objections; the company says it's open to discussions permitted under the Applicant Guidebook prior to Reveal Day. Third, the broader trend of platform-native TLDs like.gram points toward demand for branded identity layers rather than traditional keyword domains — a shift worth factoring into how you evaluate any keyword plays you already own.

One last note for anyone tempted to value.mars or any other thematic TLD on hype alone: ambitious horizons don't always translate into near-term reality. This long read on why our space exploration roadmap is unrealistic is a useful parallel to keep in mind when sizing up any new-TLD thesis.