Stabilizing Prices
As of June 2022, the IPv4 market seems to have created a new IPv4 demand baseline. With only 113 IPv4 transfer requests last month, we have a 3-month average of 111 transfer requests. While this is a steady stream of demand, the rest of the picture paints an interesting story for the end of the year.
If you compare the current 3-month average to the entire 2022 transfer request average of 129, we have a decrease of -14%. Even more significant, there was a -34% decrease over the past 3-year trend (2019 – 2021) of around 170 requests.
So, what does this mean for the IPv4 market for the remainder of the year? Let’s look at the previous 3 years of data to determine what we might be able to expect this year.
Year | Total Transfer Request | Average Transfer Request | Average Price Per IP | Annual Price Increase |
2019 | 1997 | 166 | $20 | +18% |
2020 | 2002 | 167 | $24 | +20% |
2021 | 1878 | 156 | $38 | +58% |
2022* | 774 | 129 | $50 | +32% |
*Chart above only contains data from January to June of 2022 |
2019 was the first year where we saw a price drop after breaching the $20 per IP price point. This was following a stock market correction late in 2018. This was also subsequent to the first time we saw a crash of IPv4 demand in December of 2018, when the IPv4 transfer requests decreased to 107 as compared to the average of 168, demonstrating a -36% dip.
2020 was a steady year for growth in the IPv4 market, despite the global pandemic. As discussed in prior blogs, there was a significant increase in demand to support the increased number of people working from home. Prices increased at normal industry rate of between 20% – 25% per year.
2021 is where we saw the strongest bull market for IPv4 address demand and price increases. The economy was still recovering from the effects of COVID, which was preventing new suppliers from entering the market. At the same time, there was continued increases in demand, which caused IPv4 prices to skyrocket by 100% in just 1 year.
2022 has been by far the most volatile for the IPv4 transfer market. Prices started out at $55 per IP at the beginning of the year and have landed at around $50 average since. However, it seems like though prices have decreased since January, we are currently in a position where the market price per IP has increased around 30% as compared to the average from 2021.
While the IPv4 market has softened, we are still trending to possibly be in a stronger position than last year based on the numbers. Even if prices stabilize at a $50 per IP average, we still show significant growth in IPv4 value as compared to previous years.