Standfirst: As APNIC’s IPv4 pool tightens, address transfers are becoming more complex, regulated and strategic. Organisations must rethink ownership, governance and risk.
APNIC’s evolving IPv4 transfer policies are tightening supply, raising compliance expectations and reshaping how organisations source address space in the region.
Advocacy groups such as NRS urge businesses to treat IP addresses as strategic assets, not commodities, in long-term network planning.
APNIC at the centre of a global IPv4 squeeze
The Asia–Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) sits at the heart of IPv4 governance for one of the fastest-growing internet regions on earth. Like all Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), it is managing the tail-end of a finite, heavily fragmented IPv4 pool while trying to accelerate migration to IPv6.
APNIC’s own IPv4 exhaustion page notes that “all of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have either limited supplies or have run out of available IPv4 addresses”, with ARIN, RIPE NCC and LACNIC having fully exhausted their free pools, while APNIC and AFRINIC ration their remaining space under community policies.
In the APNIC region, new and existing members can still receive IPv4, but only in small quantities. Under current policy, “the maximum amount of IPv4 address space new or existing APNIC members can get is a /23 or 512 addresses”; anything beyond that requires the organisation to “consider IPv4 transfers”. That simple rule pushes most serious IPv4 growth into the transfer market – and that market is changing quickly.
How APNIC IPv4 transfers work today
APNIC defines a transfer as the movement of IP addresses or Autonomous System Numbers from one legal entity to another. Its transfer framework covers mergers and acquisitions, historical resources, and the movement of unused IPv4 or ASNs between organisations that can demonstrate need.
APNIC’s Transfer of unused IPv4 addresses and/or AS numbers guidance is clear: transfers are permitted “providing the source and recipient entities meet the transfer policy criteria”. The recipient must show a justified requirement for the resources, and crucially, the registry insists that all transfers are properly recorded in the APNIC Whois Database.
A key safeguard is the five-year hold on certain allocations. APNIC states that IPv4 addresses delegated from the 103/8 “final /8” free pool cannot be transferred “for a minimum of five years after the original delegation date”. This rule aims to prevent speculative “flipping” of fresh allocations and to ensure that space is used operationally before it can move on the secondary market.
Inter-RIR transfers add a further layer of complexity. APNIC policy allows transfers between APNIC and other RIRs only where the counterpart has a compatible policy; currently, that includes ARIN, RIPE NCC and LACNIC. This interoperability helps keep the IPv4 market global, but it also means procurement teams must navigate multiple policy regimes at once.
Nearing the end of 103/8 – and what comes after
APNIC’s own blog has been candid about the pace of depletion of its “final /8” block, 103/8. In an October 2023 post, APNIC’s Guangliang Pan observed that it had been “over 12 years since APNIC began delegating IPv4 addresses from its final /8 (103/8)” and that the registry was “likely [to] make its final delegations from 103/8 this week”.
Crucially, Pan emphasised that “the exhaustion of 103/8 doesn’t mean that APNIC has run out of IPv4 or will stop delegating IPv4 addresses”. At the time of writing, there were 19,811 /24s – just over 5 million addresses – left in APNIC’s combined available and reserved pools, much of it recovered from historical resources.
External analysts have broadly reached similar conclusions. A 2023 briefing from Japan Network Security Association (JNSA), drawing on APNIC data, projected that available IPv4 at APNIC could be exhausted around the second half of 2025 if current delegation trends continue, while noting that returned address space could slightly extend that horizon.
APNIC itself, in its IPv4 post-exhaustion guidance, stresses that there is “still IPv4 address space” to delegate, but reiterates that each member is “entitled to a total maximum of a /23 (or 512 addresses)” and that larger requirements must be met through transfers or inter-RIR sourcing.
For companies, the implication is clear: ongoing delegation will continue for a few years, but the transfer market will carry more of the load – and that market is governed by increasingly strict rules.
Tightening rules: transfer policy changes through 2025
Hosting provider Vodien recently published a detailed explainer on APNIC IPv4 transfer policy changes, summarising how updates are reshaping the transfer workflow. According to its analysis, the changes include “a five-year hold on newly allocated IPv4 space, minimum /24 transfer size, mandatory recipient acknowledgement, and enhanced registry validation”.
The minimum /24 requirement means that very small fragments can no longer be transferred, reducing routing table bloat and discouraging excessive fragmentation. The five-year hold on recent allocations – now applied not only to 103/8 but also to new delegations from recovered non-103/8 space – keeps a significant chunk of addresses out of immediate circulation.
Vodien also notes the addition of a 30-day acknowledgement window and beefed-up checks on registry objects: APNIC now validates organisation records, usage plans and membership status before approving a transfer, with incomplete or outdated data resulting in delays or denial.
Taken together, these shifts reinforce APNIC’s own message on IPv4 exhaustion: that while transfers remain possible, they are to be tightly governed. As APNIC’s policy documentation explains, the overarching goal is to ensure that “all transfers of IPv4 address space are accurately reflected in the APNIC Whois Database”, preserving “an accurate description of the current state of address distribution”.
NRS and the push to “own” your IP assets
Amid this changing policy landscape, advocacy groups such as the Number Resource Society (NRS) have positioned themselves as champions of IP address holders. NRS describes itself as “a global non-profit membership organization that campaigns, empowers and supports businesses to own the fundamental elements of their IP business.”
On its blog, NRS has published extensive analysis of how APNIC allocates IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. It highlights five principles – “uniqueness, registration, aggregation, conservation, and fairness” – as the core of APNIC’s allocation approach. That emphasis aligns closely with APNIC’s own language on stewardship and registry accuracy.
NRS also underlines the strategic limits of the transfer market. In one article, it quotes APNIC Director General Paul Wilson as warning that “the long-term future growth and success of the Internet is dependent on the successful deployment of IPv6”, and that excessive reliance on IPv4 transfers and Network Address Translation risks undermining the internet’s end-to-end model.
For enterprises, the takeaway from NRS’s commentary is that IPv4 transfers should be seen as a transitional tool, not a permanent growth model. The organisation’s wider campaign to “own your IP address” encourages businesses to treat address space as a governed asset, with clear provenance, internal policies and long-term planning.
Strategic implications for companies in the APNIC region
The combined effect of exhaustion, tighter policies and mounting demand is that IPv4 transfers will increasingly resemble major capital projects, not routine procurement. Organisations sourcing space via APNIC transfers – whether intra-regional or inter-RIR – will need to prepare for:
Longer lead times, as five-year holds and stricter validation reduce the pool of immediately transferable addresses.
Higher prices and more competitive bidding in brokerage and leasing markets, reflecting constrained supply. (This is widely inferred from scarcity trends documented by APNIC and independent analysts.)
Greater emphasis on governance: consistent registry data, documented usage plans and internal IPAM (IP address management) controls to satisfy APNIC’s stewardship expectations.
APNIC itself advises members that if they need more than a /23, they should “consider finding a source for an IPv4 transfer” and that recipients “must demonstrate their need for additional IPv4 space”. That requirement effectively bakes capacity planning and justification into every transfer request.
For CIOs and network architects, this means IPv4 sourcing plans must be integrated with broader business strategy: mergers and acquisitions, geographic expansion, cloud migration and edge deployments all have IP address implications that can no longer be treated as operational afterthoughts.
Building a resilient address strategy: beyond one-off transfers
Looking ahead, successful organisations in the APNIC region are likely to adopt hybrid strategies that combine multiple levers:
Careful use of transfers for core, long-lived infrastructure, aligned with APNIC’s needs-based policy and five-year hold constraints.
IPv4 leasing or short-term acquisitions for project-based or burst workloads, with rigorous checks on reputation and registry accuracy. This mirrors best-practice guidance from operators and brokers tracking the RIR transfer landscape.
Aggressive IPv6 deployment, following APNIC’s repeated message that IPv6 is the “long-term solution” and that there is “not enough unused IPv4 address space left for networks to grow”.
NRS’s analysis of APNIC’s allocation rules suggests that IPv6 policies have been deliberately designed to avoid the fragmentation and scarcity problems that plague IPv4, using techniques such as sparse delegation to maintain aggregation and routing efficiency. Taken together, APNIC’s and NRS’s positions point towards a future where IPv4 transfers are a necessary but diminishing part of the picture, and IPv6 is the principal growth platform.
The governance dimension: internet policy and corporate risk
The transfer question is not purely technical or financial; it is also about governance and accountability. APNIC’s policy framework is developed through a bottom-up, multistakeholder process in which community members propose, debate and adopt changes.
An NRS commentary on APNIC’s role in internet governance emphasises this broader mission, highlighting APNIC’s work to “ensure equitable distribution of internet resources” and to act as a catalyst for collaboration among governments, regulators and industry.
For companies, this ecosystem matters because it shapes regulatory expectations around transparency, anti-abuse measures and fair access to address space. Missteps in IPv4 transfers – for example, acquiring blocks with disputed provenance or allowing registry data to become outdated – can create reputational and operational risks, including blacklisting, routing issues and potential disputes.
By aligning internal governance with APNIC policy, and by engaging with community processes where appropriate, organisations can reduce those risks and help steer the evolution of transfer rules in a direction that supports both stability and innovation.
Preparing now for the next five years
APNIC’s own projections indicate that while the registry will “still have IPv4 address space to delegate for another five years”, the exhaustion of 103/8 is a stark reminder that IPv4 is in its final phase.
In practical terms, that means companies should:
Audit their existing address space and registry objects to ensure accuracy and compliance.
Map future IPv4 needs against APNIC’s /23 cap, transfer options and inter-RIR possibilities.
Accelerate IPv6 adoption across access, core and application layers, in line with APNIC’s recommendation to “plan for your IPv6 deployment now”.
In this landscape, organisations may find value in external advocacy and advisory groups such as NRS, which encourage members to think strategically about IP ownership and long-term address planning.
The future of APNIC IPv4 transfers, in short, will be shaped by scarcity, policy tightening and the inexorable rise of IPv6. Companies that start preparing now – treating IP addresses as governed assets rather than disposable commodities – will be better placed to navigate that transition.
FAQs
APNIC IPv4 transfers and what to expect
1. Is APNIC really running out of IPv4 addresses?
APNIC’s free pool has been shrinking for years. Its IPv4 exhaustion page confirms that all RIRs now have either limited supplies or no remaining free IPv4, and that in the APNIC region each member is capped at a /23 (512 addresses) from the final pool. While APNIC still has some space – including recovered historical addresses – depletion trends suggest that the available pool will continue to tighten over the coming years.
2. Why are IPv4 transfers becoming more regulated?
Transfers are the primary mechanism for moving IPv4 space between organisations now that the free pool is effectively exhausted. APNIC has introduced measures such as a five-year hold on new allocations, a minimum /24 transfer size and stricter registry validation to discourage speculation, reduce fragmentation and ensure that the registry accurately reflects real-world usage.
3. How do inter-RIR transfers affect companies in the APNIC region?
Inter-RIR transfers allow IPv4 space to move between APNIC and other regions, provided both registries have compatible policies. APNIC currently lists ARIN, RIPE NCC and LACNIC as eligible counterparts. For companies, this opens up a wider market but also introduces cross-jurisdictional complexity: different documentation standards, waiting times and costs across RIRs.
4. What role does NRS play in this landscape?
Number Resource Society (NRS) is a membership organisation that campaigns for businesses to “own the fundamental elements of their IP business”, including IP addresses. Through blog posts and commentary, it analyses APNIC’s policies, emphasises principles like fairness and conservation, and highlights the strategic necessity of IPv6. Its perspective encourages organisations to treat address space as a long-term asset rather than a short-term commodity.
5. What should my company do now to prepare for the future of APNIC IPv4 transfers?
First, review your existing allocations and ensure all registry data in APNIC’s Whois is accurate and up to date, as transfers increasingly depend on clean records. Second, plan how you will source any additional IPv4 you need – via transfers, inter-RIR moves or short-term leasing – within APNIC’s /23 cap and five-year hold rules. Finally, align this with an explicit IPv6 roadmap, heeding APNIC’s warning that IPv6 is the only sustainable long-term solution for growth.
