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An Ethereum Name Service (ENS) name such as yourname.eth is an NFT, but it behaves differently from most collectibles. You do not own it forever. A .eth name is registered for a set period, and when that period ends, the name moves through a defined sequence that can end with someone else registering it.

This guide explains that sequence using ENS's own documentation, what keeps working while a name is expired, and what to do if you hold one.

A .eth name is an NFT with an expiry date

ENS's documentation says the .eth registrar supports the ERC-721 NFT standard, so a name can be transferred like other ERC-721 tokens. The registration is paid for a chosen duration, and there is no maximum. According to ENS's support pages, a registration cannot be burned or released early, and its expiry date cannot be shortened.

ENS's documentation lists the registration price as $5 a year for names of five or more characters, $160 for four characters and $640 for three characters, paid in ETH. These figures are the ones ENS published when we reviewed its pages on Oct. 9, 2026, and they can change.

The four stages after expiry

Registered. You control the name and its records. You can renew, transfer or edit at any time.
Grace period, 90 days. The name has expired, but nobody else can register it. The owner can renew at the standard price.
Temporary premium, 21 days. Anyone can register the name as new. The extra premium starts at $100 million and falls to $0 over the 21 days.
Available again. If nobody registered it, the name returns to the normal registration price.

The premium is a one-time charge on top of the normal fee. ENS says the high starting number is not meant to be paid. It is there to stop bots from grabbing names the moment they are released. The previous owner gets no priority in the premium window.

What works during the grace period

ENS states that an expired name still resolves during the grace period. Funds sent to the name still arrive at the address it points to, records still resolve and the NFT stays in your wallet.

Some actions are locked until you renew. You cannot transfer the name, and listings and trades on secondary marketplaces will not work. For names wrapped in ENS's Name Wrapper, you also cannot edit the resolver or create subnames.

A renewal can land short

Renewal time is added to the original expiry date, not to today's date. ENS gives an example. If a name expired 60 days ago and you renew by 30 days, the new expiry is still 30 days in the past and the name remains in the grace period. Renewing for a full year or more avoids that.

Anyone can renew any .eth name, and renewing never changes who owns it. A friend or a team member can pay for a renewal without taking the name.

What happens when someone else registers it

ENS's support page says the old NFT stays in the original owner's wallet until someone else registers the name. When a new owner registers, the old NFT is burned and a new one is minted to the new owner.

ENS's FAQ adds that a released name continues to resolve to the previous address until the new owner overwrites it. In our reading, that means a name which has changed hands could point somewhere different from what a sender remembers. Anyone paying a .eth name should confirm the destination address, especially for a large transfer.

Your wallet is not affected

An expired name does not touch your wallet. ENS says your address, funds, other NFTs and private key stay the same. What changes is the name-to-address link, and apps that showed your name fall back to the raw address.

Habits that reduce the risk

Check dates in the ENS app. The My Names page lists the expiry date for every name where you are the owner or manager. Names in other wallets do not appear there.
Line up your expiry dates. ENS suggests syncing several names to one date and renewing for several years at once.
Do not trust renewal links. ENS says it does not send reminders and advises treating any message that asks you to renew through a link as a scam. Go to the ENS app directly.

ENSv2 may change the grace period

ENS's support page on ENSv2 says that once ENSv2 launches, an upgraded name will have a 28-day grace period instead of 90, and 62 days will be added to its registration so the grace period ends on the same date. It also lists a higher price of $8 a year for names of five or more characters. On the page we reviewed, ENS said ENSv2 was not live and no launch date was confirmed. Until you upgrade, your name keeps the 90-day period.

Sources

Disclosure: This article explains ENS's published renewal rules and does not evaluate the value of any name or marketplace listing. The featured illustration is generated and conceptual. This article is not financial, legal, or investment advice. AI-assisted research and writing. Cited sources, not AI alone, support the claims.

Market context

Your .eth Name Is an NFT That Expires: The ENS Renewal Timeline