New gTLDs in 2026: what it means for domain trust

TL;DR: ICANN’s 2026 new gTLD round will add another wave of domain namespaces, with more than 1,200 new options introduced in the last expansion and registry operators expected to prove both financial and technical capability, according to DigiCert. Domain identity, DNS, PKI, and email authentication now have to be governed as one trust surface, not separate teams.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by DigiCert: The next wave of new gTLDs is coming in 2026

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern new gTLDs as part of digital trust?

A: Security teams should treat each domain as a governed identity asset, not a standalone technical asset.

Q: Why do new gTLDs increase identity governance complexity?

A: New gTLDs increase complexity because each additional namespace adds delegation, provider dependency, and trust verification work.

Q: What breaks when domain governance is split across different teams?

A: When domain governance is split, teams can make isolated changes that undermine the larger trust model.

Practitioner guidance

• Inventory domains as identity assets Map every owned, delegated, parked, and legacy domain to a business owner, technical owner, and trust dependency profile.
• Add registry-provider assurance to third-party reviews Treat registry service providers like critical identity infrastructure suppliers.
• Unify DNS, PKI, and email authentication governance Put domain change control, certificate lifecycle management, and DMARC, SPF, and DKIM ownership into one operating workflow.

What's in the full article

DigiCert's full blog covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• The registry service provider evaluation context behind the 2026 application round
• How UltraDNS, DigiCert ONE, and Valimail are positioned together in the domain trust stack
• The practical scale implications of supporting more than 120 top-level domains
• The article's own framing of how domain, identity, and email authentication converge

👉 Read DigiCert's analysis of the 2026 new gTLD round and digital trust →

New gTLDs in 2026: what it means for domain trust?

Explore further

View Full Forum →  |  NHI Foundation Course →