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IANA and the IPv4 free pool
IANA is not a counterparty you can buy from. It is the authority whose free pool ran dry — the reason a transfer market exists at all.
IANA in one paragraph
IANA allocated IPv4 address blocks to the five regional internet registries until the global free pool was exhausted. No new IPv4 space has been issued from it since. Every address available today comes from an existing holder, moved through a registry transfer — which is the market Accuro operates in.
What IANA actually is
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority sat at the top of the allocation chain: it issued large blocks to the five regional registries, which in turn allocated to networks. When the pool it drew from was exhausted, that chain stopped producing new supply. The registries worked through their own remaining reserves afterwards, and those are now effectively gone too.
This is why you cannot apply for the space you need. There is no queue to join and no allocation to request — only space that another organisation already holds, and a policy framework for moving it.
What that means in practice
- Supply is fixed. The total pool does not grow. It only redistributes.
- Idle space has a price. Addresses sitting unused are a holding with a market value, whether or not the holder treats them that way.
- IPv6 has not removed the need. Reaching the whole public internet still requires IPv4, which is why dual-stack remains the practical default.
If you hold space you no longer fully use, see the selling structures. If you need addresses, see the acquisition models.