RIPE, EU's regional internet registry, says it has run out of new IPv4 addresses and any returned will be allotted via waitlist, urges faster adoption of IPv6
So will you all please move to IPv6? World: Nope. — Analysis It happened four years ago. And again two years ago. And last year.
Context & Ripple Effects
Europe has now hit the wall North America hit years earlier: after ARIN exhausted its free pool of IPv4 blocks in 2015, RIPE says it too can no longer allocate new IPv4 addresses and will ration any returns through a waitlist — with a renewed plea for IPv6 that the wider internet keeps ignoring.
The timing matters because registry stewardship is under scrutiny: weeks later an AFRINIC executive resigned over accusations of selling $50M+ of IPv4 space on the black market, showing what happens when scarcity meets weak oversight. Meanwhile states are stepping in where voluntary adoption stalled — China is preparing an IPv6+ proposal at the ITU aimed at regions lagging behind.
First-order effects
- European organizations that need new IPv4 space can no longer get fresh allocations from RIPE and must join a waitlist for returned addresses, pushing demand toward existing holders and the transfer market instead.
Second-order effects
- Scarcity raises the value of every unallocated or underused IPv4 block held by European networks, strengthening brokers and transfer channels — precisely the environment where the kind of off-book dealing alleged at AFRINIC thrives.
Third-order effects
- If each region follows the ARIN-then-RIPE pattern, the five RIRs shift from allocating a free resource to policing a scarce traded asset, making registry governance and audit rigor central to internet infrastructure rather than back-office functions.
The trend: Regional registries are exhausting their IPv4 pools one by one, turning address allocation into a scarcity-governed transfer market while voluntary IPv6 migration stalls and state-led pushes like China's try to fill the gap.