IPv4 Market Summary Q4 & 2021 Wrap-Up

Volatility.

Due to the volatility of the IPv4 transfer market in 2021, our team was eagerly waiting to see the results of the ARIN transfers from December to complete our analysis of the entire year. There could have been a few different predictions on where the IPv4 market would end up based on the limited market supply, COVID variants, ARDOF funds and the mysterious transfer of 175 million IP addresses by the U.S. Pentagon.

There was a rather large delta in transfer requests from April to May, dropping by a shocking -62%.  This information could have potentially led us to believe the IPv4 market was going to have a decline.  However, from May to June, we saw an increase in demand of +88%.  After analyzing the final 6 months of the year, we gathered additional data points to make a better assessment.  Since the crash in May, the average number of transfers requested was 135.

Before the crash, in first 4 months of 2021 the average number of transfers requested was 198, which was a decrease of -32%.  If we compare the average since the May crash to the previous 3 years consistent average of 167 transfer requests, we are also still down -19%.

In addition, it is important to consider the other data points.  For instance, in the previous 3 years having relatively no volatility in IPv4 purchase trends or transfer requests, we saw a steady increase in IPv4 prices of around 25% per year.

In 2021 however, even with the sharp decline of over 30% in May, the market still experienced a 100% increase in IPv4 prices over the year.

Lack of IPv4 supply

One of the largest contributing factors to the continued increase in pricing was the lack of IPv4 supply in 2021.

While the demand may have decreased by 30%, the supply likely decreased by exponentially more, which is indicative of the continued increases in pricing.  In fact, while the rest of the market had a decrease in demand, Brander Group had a continuous quarterly increase in IPv4 sales and transfers through the entire year of 2021.  This is likely due to our ability to effectively access suppliers all over the world, even during times of uncertainty.

Brander Groups Impact on the Global IPv4 Market

In 2021, Brander Group completed 639 IPv4 transfers globally for a total of 2,599,680 IP address with a sales revenue of $100,612,454 (USD).  The total number of IPv4 transfers increased by +34%, while the sales revenue grew by an +98% over 2020.

The services we provide span over 60 countries in the ARIN, RIPE, APNIC and LACNIC regions.  We have become the #1 global supplier of IPv4 addresses, and have over 1500 clients relying on our fully managed IPv4 service offering.

2022 will be an even bigger year as we have already secured partnerships to sell over 4 Million IP address which will be distributed throughout the upcoming year.  Our team will continue to uncover more opportunities to bring new IPv4 suppliers throughout the year, while assisting the buyer community with their needs.