IPv4 Market October 2026: Transfers & Lease Prices

October 2026 IPv4 transfers reached 3.88 million addresses across ARIN and RIPE, approximately 5% above September’s 3.71 million after removing a duplicate record. Most of that volume, however, came from mergers and acquisitions. Outside explicitly classified M&A, volume fell from 2,134,784 addresses in September to 1,217,792 in October, a decline of 43%.

The number of recipients changed much less, falling by just 3.6%. Smaller IPv4 prefixes also continued to move regularly, despite the reduction in non-M&A transfer volume.

At least four identifiable AI-related companies received IPv4 address space in October, including OpenAI, Modal, Baseten and Nebius. Their combined transfers represented 16.6% of the month’s non-M&A volume.

IPv4 lease prices changed little: ARIN averaged €0.43 per IP per month, down 0.2%, while RIPE averaged €0.42, down 1.2%. The sharp fall in transfer volume was not matched by a comparable decline in lease prices.

October’s key signal: transfer volume outside explicitly classified M&A fell 43%, while the number of recipients declined just 3.6%.

October 2026 IPv4 Transfers: Volume and Recipients

ARIN RESOURCE_TRANSFER volume declined from 1,355,776 addresses in September to 875,264 in October, down 35.4%. RIPE POLICY transfers fell more sharply, from 779,008 to 342,528 addresses, a 56% reduction.

Across both registries, observed transfer groups decreased from 249 to 241, while the number of distinct recipients fell from 225 to 217.

The difference between volume and recipient count reflects the changing size of transfers. September included several large recipients, particularly CloudIP, which received 589,824 addresses from IBM and NCR Voyix. October had no comparable concentration among recipients in the non-M&A categories. Its two largest ARIN recipients, OpenAI and ACE Data Centers II, each received 131,072 addresses.

Removing the largest recipient from each registry in both months still leaves October’s volume 21.2% below September’s. The reduction extends beyond the absence of another CloudIP-sized transfer.

Smaller IPv4 Blocks Remained Active

Across ARIN and RIPE, 296 individual /24–/22 prefixes changed hands outside explicitly classified M&A transactions, compared with 299 in September. These blocks represented 74.9% of all non-M&A prefixes transferred in October, up from approximately 67% a month earlier.

RIPE recorded an increase in this size range, from 191 prefixes in September to 201 in October.

The September figures require one qualification. Canada Post was the source of 81 prefixes in September, 62 of them in the /24–/22 range. The transfers took place on five different dates and involved six recipients. Of the 81 prefixes, 74 went to Element IP Management Services, so prefix counts should not be read as counts of independent commercial transactions.

Excluding all Canada Post-sourced prefixes from September leaves 237 /24–/22 prefixes out of 364 non-M&A prefixes, or 65.1%. Against that adjusted September figure, October’s 296 prefixes represent an increase of approximately 25%. This is a supplementary comparison rather than a like-for-like market growth measure, since the Canada Post exclusion is applied only to September.

Large blocks still supplied most of the address volume, although their contribution declined. Prefixes of /18 and larger represented 53.8% of October’s non-M&A volume, compared with approximately 70% in September. For reference, the InterLIR subnet cheat sheet explains the address counts associated with each CIDR size.

OpenAI, Modal, Baseten and Nebius Received IPv4 Space

October’s records contain at least four identifiable AI-related recipients. The companies discussed below were selected individually from the registry data, and the list is not exhaustive. None of these four companies appears among September’s recipients.

On October 29, The Prudential Insurance Company of America transferred 131,072 IPv4 addresses to OpenAI OpCo, LLC. Earlier in the month, Franklin and Marshall College transferred a /16 containing 65,536 addresses to Modal Labs, Inc.

Two smaller transfers involved Baseten Labs, which received 1,024 addresses from Comtech Telecommunications, and Nebius B.V., which received a combined 4,352 addresses from Chess ICT and RM Education.

Together, these four recipients accounted for 201,984 addresses, or approximately 16.6% of October’s non-M&A transfer volume.

The volume was concentrated in two recipients. OpenAI and Modal accounted for more than 97% of the address space received by these four companies.

The public records establish that the transfers took place, but they do not disclose prices, commercial terms or the intended use of the addresses. The involvement of several AI companies confirms that these companies received address space through registered transfers, while the evidence remains insufficient to establish AI-driven price increases or a broader purchasing trend.

How M&A Affected October’s Headline Total

Explicitly classified M&A transfers accounted for approximately 68.6% of the combined ARIN and RIPE total.

Two recipients were especially prominent: Verizon Business received 940,288 addresses through M&A-linked transfers, while 2Connect Telecommunications Infrastructure & Network Services received 941,312. Together, they represented almost half of all address space transferred during the month.

These movements form part of the registry statistics, but their M&A classification reflects corporate transfers rather than independently verified purchases on the open IPv4 market.

Large corporate reallocations can keep total transferred volume high even when non-M&A transfer activity contracts. October illustrates this directly: combined volume increased by approximately 5% from September, while volume excluding M&A fell by 43%.

Even the non-M&A categories may contain internal corporate movements, so they should be treated as a closer approximation of market activity rather than a verified record of commercial sales.

IPv4 lease prices remained broadly stable in October

Average monthly IPv4 lease prices edged down in October: RIPE fell 1.2% to €0.42 per IP, while ARIN slipped 0.2% to €0.43. The modest changes contrast with the 43% decline in transfer volume outside explicitly classified M&A.

Prices are in euros per IP per month, rounded to two decimal places. Percentage changes use unrounded averages.

RIPE remained within a narrow range of €0.41–€0.42 throughout May–October. ARIN was more variable: its average fell to €0.37 in June, recovered to €0.43 in September and stayed close to that level in October.

For tenants, October brought little change to the average cost of leasing address space in this sample. The sharp decline in transferred addresses was not accompanied by a comparable fall in lease prices. Current offers, block size and lease terms remain more useful for budgeting than the headline transfer total.

What October’s Figures Mean for Buyers and Sellers

For buyers, the lower aggregate volume does not establish that suitable IPv4 blocks are easier to obtain or cheaper. Compare current offers for the registry, block size and region your network requires.

For sellers, recipient counts and block-size activity provide useful context alongside total address volume. October’s /24–/22 prefix count was almost unchanged, even as larger transfers contributed less volume. Neither measure establishes the likely time to sell a particular block.

For tenants, average lease costs remained close to September levels. Compare current offers and terms for the blocks you need; the decline in transfer volume alone is not evidence of substantial rental savings.

What to Watch in November

November’s figures will show whether the decline in non-M&A transfer volume continues, particularly among /18-and-larger blocks. The number of distinct recipients, transfers of /24–/22 prefixes and the contribution of the largest individual recipients should help distinguish changes in overall activity from the effects of unusually large transactions.

For AI-related companies, we will track additional identifiable recipients, the sizes of their transfers and whether address volumes become more widely distributed across companies.

Methodology

Lease prices use InterLIR’s monthly ARIN and RIPE dataset for May–October 2026, expressed in euros per IPv4 address per month. These sample averages are not a market-wide or constant-sample index; changes in the mix of blocks may affect the results.

This analysis covers publicly disclosed IPv4 transfers recorded by ARIN’s public transfer log and RIPEstat transfer history. The principal month-to-month comparison uses ARIN RESOURCE_TRANSFER and RIPE POLICY records, with explicitly classified M&A transfers analysed separately.

Address volumes are calculated from the transferred prefixes. Observed transfer groups are identified by registry, date, source, recipient and transfer category; they are not necessarily individual commercial contracts. Different movements of the same address space may appear separately in the registry data.

Apparent duplicates are reviewed using the source, recipient, IPv4 prefix and surrounding transfer history; repeated prefixes alone are not treated as duplicates. In the September data, the TalkTalk → OXIO transfer of 80.43.64.0/18 appears on both September 9 and September 14 and is counted once. By contrast, the October records for 170.198.0.0/16 describe two distinct transfers — first an M&A-linked transfer to TP ICAP on October 9, followed by a transfer to Oracle on October 14 — and both are retained.

The analysis uses public transfer information rather than transaction-level pricing or contractual data. Transfers classified outside M&A can still include administrative or intragroup movements.

Alex Krylov

Head of Sales