ARIN IPv4 Transfer Volatility August 2021

A Positive Trend for August

The month of August 2021 seems to have finally showed a positive trend in the IPv4 transfer market. Figures for IPv4 transfers requested, indicating demand, and transfers completed, indicating supply, have returned to the values we saw at the beginning of the year.

The number of IPv4 transfer requests has finally grown back to 167, a 20% improvement over July which had only 134 transfers requested. This demonstrates 3 months of positive double-digit gains in IPv4 requests since the crash in May when the total dropped -62% to an all-time low of 77 IPv4 transfers requested. More importantly, August IPv4 demand was slightly higher than the average of 164.5 for the year. If we continue to see the demand stabilize around the average or increase before end of year, then we can expect IPv4 prices to continue to increase.

So what does this mean for the prices of IPv4 for the rest of 2021? Based on past IPv4 market data, we can conclude they will sustain at the current all-time high rates, and potentially increase if the trend continues. However, it also depends on when suppliers start to refocus their efforts back on re-addressing unused IPv4 subnets and putting them into the market. One of the main reasons prices spiked in 2020 and 2021 is due to the limited supply entering the market. At the same time, demand increased from cloud providers, internet hosting companies, data centers, mobile network operators, and e-commerce providers to support the growing number of online users.

Record Sales

As for Brander Group, we are having record sales months. Our team was able to bring on several new vendors which gave us access to over 430,000 IP addresses ranging in sizes from /24s up to /17’s. We have been releasing inventory over time as the suppliers complete re-addressing initiatives, and IPv4 buyers have been eagerly consuming the IPs as they become available.

In August, we had 58 x IPv4 address sales across the ARIN, RIPE and APNIC regions. In September we have already sold 44 x IPv4 blocks and we are on track to do sell 70 in total by the end of the month.

All signs so far are pointing to a healthy IPv4 transfer market. We will continue to bring the latest IPv4 trends, statistics and insights to our audience.