IPv4 Market Report — July 2026: Prices Fall to $20.62/IP as 380K Addresses Trade
IPv4 may be a decades-old protocol, but the market for IPv4 address space continues to change rapidly.
In July 2026, we tracked 96 completed IPv4 transactions representing 380,160 addresses and approximately $5.37 million in market value.
The headline number: the weighted average price fell to $20.62 per IPv4 address.
The median was even lower at $19.38/IP.
Compared with July 2025, average IPv4 pricing is now down 25.7% year over year.
For infrastructure teams, hosting providers, ISPs and anyone operating at meaningful IPv4 scale, the shift has important implications.
July 2026 at a Glance
The IPv4 market recorded:
- 96 priced transactions
- 380,160 IPv4 addresses traded
- $5.37 million in estimated transaction value
- $20.62/IP weighted average
- $19.38/IP median
- 294 transfers recorded by RIRs
The number of transactions was almost unchanged from July 2025, declining only 1%.
But the number of addresses traded increased by almost 40%.
That combination tells us something important: IPv4 demand has not disappeared.
Instead, the market is clearing significantly more address space at lower prices.
IPv4 Pricing Is Still Trending Down
Average pricing declined from $27.74/IP in July 2025 to $20.62/IP in July 2026.
That's a 25.7% year-over-year correction.
During July, observed transaction prices ranged from approximately $10/IP at the low end to $35/IP at the high end.
That spread shows why there isn't really one universal "IPv4 price."
The value of an IPv4 block depends heavily on factors such as:
- prefix size
- RIR region
- blacklist history
- routing reputation
- allocation history
- transfer history
A clean /24 with a long, stable reputation can sell for considerably more per address than a large block requiring operational or reputation cleanup.
RIPE vs. ARIN
RIPE and ARIN represented almost the entire transaction dataset in July.
RIPE NCC
48 transactions were recorded at an average of:
$19.71/IP
Median:
$18/IP
ARIN
47 transactions averaged:
$21.46/IP
Median:
$23/IP
APNIC
Only one /24 transaction appeared in the dataset, at:
$25/IP
The limited APNIC sample means it shouldn't be treated as a broader market trend.
What is interesting is how close RIPE and ARIN have become.
Historically, regional differences could create significantly larger pricing gaps. The July data suggests that prefix quality, size and buyer requirements are becoming at least as important as the RIR itself.
/24 Blocks Still Behave Differently
Small blocks remain the most frequently traded part of the market.
There were 31 /24 transactions in July — roughly one-third of all priced deals.
This makes sense operationally.
A /24 provides 256 IPv4 addresses and is useful for deployments that don't require tens of thousands of addresses at once.
Typical use cases include:
- hosting
- ISP infrastructure
- DNS
- email infrastructure
- smaller cloud deployments
- regional services
At the other end of the market, larger allocations generally trade at lower per-IP prices because the total capital requirement increases dramatically.
Our July model placed current pricing bands around:
- /24: $25.75/IP
- /23: $20.00/IP
- /22: $17.65/IP
- /21: $17.00/IP
- /20: $15.00/IP
- /19: $14.00/IP
- /18–/16: $12.50/IP
- /15 and larger: approximately $10/IP
Prefix size matters.
A company purchasing 256 addresses and another company purchasing 65,536 addresses are effectively participating in two different markets.
What Happens Next?
Our forecasting model currently projects the overall IPv4 market average at:
August 2026: $19.56/IP
and:
December 2026: $19.02/IP
RIPE is projected to trend toward approximately $18/IP by year-end, while ARIN is projected around $20/IP.
These are forecasts, not guarantees.
But the direction of travel has been relatively consistent.
Our model incorporates historical transactions, individual block-size segments, RIR data and recent market conditions.
Why Is IPv4 Still Valuable?
IPv6 adoption continues to expand, but the internet has not transitioned away from IPv4.
Enterprises still operate enormous amounts of IPv4-dependent infrastructure.
Hosting providers, ISPs, cloud platforms, legacy applications and internal enterprise networks frequently require IPv4 either directly or through dual-stack deployments.
That creates an unusual situation.
IPv4 is technically a scarce resource with a finite supply, but the market price can still decline when companies optimize their holdings and release unused space.
The result is a mature secondary market where addresses move from organizations with excess inventory to organizations with active demand.
AI Infrastructure Adds Another Demand Layer
AI infrastructure is also creating new demand for network resources.
Training environments, GPU infrastructure, API services, inference platforms and supporting cloud infrastructure all require connectivity.
IPv4 demand from this segment will not reverse the broader IPv6 transition, but it adds another category of buyers competing for usable IPv4 resources.
We are increasingly watching /20 to /18 address space in this context.
What Buyers Should Take From the Current Market
The current environment favors disciplined buyers.
Prices are down significantly from a year ago, but that doesn't mean the cheapest block is automatically the best deal.
Before purchasing IPv4 space, buyers should verify:
- RIR registration and ownership
- seller authority
- blacklist status
- routing history
- geolocation history
- existing ROAs and IRR objects
- transfer eligibility
- any existing leases or encumbrances
A few dollars per IP in savings can quickly disappear if a block has a problematic reputation.
What Sellers Should Consider
The calculation is different for sellers.
If an organization holds unused IPv4 inventory, the market has been moving against anyone waiting purely for price appreciation.
Average pricing is substantially below 2025 levels, and our current model doesn't indicate a meaningful reversal before the end of 2026.
That doesn't automatically mean every holder should sell.
Some organizations may still prefer to lease their addresses or retain them for future infrastructure requirements.
But unused IPv4 space is now an asset that should be actively evaluated rather than ignored on the balance sheet.
The Bigger Picture
IPv4 isn't disappearing.
But the IPv4 market is changing.
Scarcity alone no longer determines pricing.
Block reputation, prefix size, regional requirements, transferability and buyer concentration increasingly determine what an address is actually worth.
For developers and infrastructure teams, IPv4 may look like a networking detail.
For organizations operating at scale, it has become an infrastructure asset with a real secondary market.
And right now, that market is repricing.
The data in this article is based on completed IPv4Center marketplace transactions and official RIR transfer statistics.
Read the complete IPv4 Market Report — July 2026, including detailed forecasts, historical pricing and transfer analysis:
Mustafa Enes Akdeniz
CEO & Founder, IPv4Center.com
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