ENSv2 launches on Ethereum as annual fee for long names rises to $8
Key Facts
ENS announced on October 27, 2026, that the ENSv2 protocol was available on the Ethereum mainnet, launching an app to manage names and an explorer to inspect them. The organization said its ecosystem supports more than 36 million names across .eth domains and ecosystem name spaces, and that more than 600 apps support ENS name resolution. The release adds hierarchical records and more granular permissions, alongside an update to name resolution and the ability to share records through linking. ENS said existing names will continue to work without re-registration. Owners of .eth names can choose to upgrade them through the app to use ENSv2 features.
The ENS app lets users register, manage and renew names, as well as customize profiles and notifications. ENS Explorer displays a name's record and the entity that controls it, how it resolves and its settings. The organization says the new architecture reorganizes records and permissions, while the linking feature allows names to share records. The launch includes tools for use and exploration alongside the protocol update itself. ENS released a public beta of the app and explorer on the Sepolia network on August 12, 2026, describing it as the last major public testing phase before the mainnet launch.
The update is also tied to a change in the registration and renewal fees for .eth names made up of five or more characters, which are rising from $5 to $8 a year. ENS also plans to introduce discounts for multi-year registrations covering all name lengths. According to the organization, base registration prices had remained unchanged since May 2019. It said the ENS decentralized autonomous organization, or ENS DAO, will review prices every two years going forward. The launch therefore comes with changes to the cost of holding long names, alongside the new features provided by the app and protocol.
The grace period after a name expires is changing from 90 days in ENSv1 to 28 days in ENSv2. To prevent existing names from returning to circulation earlier because of this change, ENS will add 62 days to a name's registration expiration date when it is upgraded. This means the optional upgrade includes an adjustment to the expiration date as well as moving the name to the new architecture. ENS released the public beta of the app and explorer on Sepolia in August, after launching a public Alpha version of the explorer on February 5, 2026. Those stages preceded ENSv2's availability on mainnet in October.
The ENSv2 proposal began on May 28, 2024, as a redesign of the protocol and an expansion of its functionality to layer 2 networks, with the choice of a proposed network still under consideration at the time. On February 6, 2026, ENS announced that the release would be deployed exclusively on Ethereum and halted development of Namechain. The organization said the decision allows names to be resolved on one chain instead of two. It also cited what it described as a 99% reduction in gas costs for ENS registrations over the previous year, alongside Ethereum's gas limit rising from 30 million to 60 million during 2025. This course sets the mainnet launch in the context of the decision to abandon a separate network for the project.
The launch was also preceded by a security audit competition organized by ENS with Immunefi, which ran from August 18 to September 14, 2026, with a maximum total prize pool of $70,000. It covered a review of the code for the ENS app and explorer, as well as their supporting infrastructure. ENS had said publication of the final results and payment of rewards were scheduled for October 26, 2026. Following the launch, upgrading existing names remains optional, and their owners can continue using them without re-registration. Steps associated with the update include upgrading a name through the app, applying the new grace period and adding the prescribed days to the expiration date of an existing name.