The IPv4 transfer market
The pool of free IPv4 addresses ran dry years ago — the RIRs handed out the last large blocks between 2011 and 2019. Since then, address space changes hands through a secondary market: organisations that hold more than they use sell to those that need more. Every transfer is logged by the Regional Internet Registries, and those logs are what you see here. (IPv6, with its vast supply, has almost no such market; mergers and reorganisations are excluded from the flows below.)
Volume transferred per year
Addresses (or /48 blocks, or ASNs) that changed hands each year. Switch resource type with the tabs; the tooltip shows the number of distinct transfer events.
Who sells to whom
Top 40 country-to-country IPv4 flows (transfers only; self-transfers and mergers excluded). Read it left → right: the SELLER is on the left, the BUYER on the right, and each band is coloured by the seller. Hover a band for the addresses moved.
Net buyers vs net sellers
Inbound minus outbound IPv4 addresses per country — the biggest movers. Green countries are net importers of address space; red are net exporters.
Net buyers
| Country | In | Out | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 340.3M | 303.4M | +37M |
| SG Singapore | 24.6M | 3.8M | +20.8M |
| CN China | 21.3M | 14.6M | +6.7M |
| HK Hong Kong SAR China | 6M | 2.9M | +3.1M |
| IN India | 6.4M | 3.7M | +2.7M |
| JP Japan | 12.7M | 10.2M | +2.5M |
| DE Germany | 2M | 258.2K | +1.7M |
| LT Lithuania | 1.1M | 27.1K | +1.1M |
| AE United Arab Emirates | 816.9K | 12.5K | +804.4K |
| PH Philippines | 1.4M | 657.2K | +773.9K |
| TH Thailand | 2.3M | 1.6M | +695K |
| SC Seychelles | 529.4K | 32.3K | +497.2K |
| SA Saudi Arabia | 449.5K | 13.8K | +435.7K |
| PA Panama | 396.8K | 100.6K | +296.2K |
| DK Denmark | 377.6K | 117.2K | +260.4K |
| CO Colombia | 221.7K | 9.5K | +212.2K |
| KH Cambodia | 245K | 61.4K | +183.6K |
Net sellers
| Country | In | Out | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZZ Unknown | 5.5M | 27.9M | −22.4M |
| AU Australia | 2.7M | 17.7M | −15M |
| CA Canada | 4.5M | 18.8M | −14.3M |
| IE Ireland | 36.1K | 574.2K | −538.1K |
| GB United Kingdom | 3.1M | 3.7M | −519.9K |
| ES Spain | 239.9K | 526.3K | −286.5K |
| NZ New Zealand | 544K | 786.9K | −242.9K |