D3, the core contributor to Doma Protocol, has launched Frontier, a new program that lets users deposit eligible assets into Solana and Hyperliquid vaults to earn points toward priority access to new internet domain names. The launch was announced at Korea Blockchain Week on September 28.
Under the program, users deposit assets with supported vault providers and earn Frontier Points. Those points can then be committed to establish priority for names offered by participating domain registries. D3 stressed that priority access does not amount to domain ownership. Instead, it applies before general registration, when a registry opens names to the public. Each registry controls its own schedule and eligibility requirements, while proposed extensions must still pass the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approval process.
The program opens with two vaults. Loopscale supports the Solana vault, while Hyperion DeFi and Upshift support the Hyperliquid vault. D3 says it plans to add vaults on other chains in the coming months. Hyperion DeFi trades on Nasdaq under the ticker HYPD, giving the launch a direct link to U.S. public markets. Hyperion CEO Hyunsu Jung said the arrangement would give the Hyperliquid community access to the program as new extensions are considered in ICANN’s round. Scott Lee, the Solana Foundation’s head of Korea, also pointed to potential uses for domain names on Solana.
D3 has named possible extensions including .agent, .wallet, .sol and .robot, while Jung referred to .hype. ICANN, however, has said its own Reveal Day publication will be the complete verified record of who applied and for which extensions.
ICANN confirmed on September 22 that 1,616 applications had met the payment requirement to proceed, out of 1,663 requests submitted before the August 12 deadline. The previous ICANN application round took place in 2012 and led to more than 1,200 new extensions. D3 CEO and co-founder Fred Hsu described the new round as an opportunity to bring crypto users into an established domain market, saying: “Frontier is how crypto gets in at the start of this domain supercycle.”
Other crypto-linked naming projects have taken different approaches to the same ICANN round. Unstoppable Domains withdrew from applications for nine of its own Web3 extensions, including .crypto and .wallet, citing high expected application, compliance and possible auction costs. Telegram has also applied for .gram in the 2026 round.
D3 raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Paradigm in January 2025, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, to develop Doma Protocol, which is designed to represent conventional internet domains on a blockchain so they can be used in on-chain applications.
