- IPv4 addresses are currently undervalued, with the market worth $200 billion, but could reach $60 trillion with full liquidity and ownership.
- Heng called on telecom and cloud providers to raise awareness and push for policy changes to unlock IPv4’s true potential.
Lu Heng, CEO of LARUS Ltd, recently highlighted the massive, untapped potential within the IPv4 address market, calling it “the biggest opportunity hiding in plain sight” for telecom and cloud providers. With over 4-5 billion devices now connected to the internet, the demand for IPv4 addresses has surged, creating a significant scarcity of these crucial service enablers. Despite this, the true value of IPv4 remains largely unrecognized.
“We are dealing with a limited asset,” Heng said, emphasizing that IPv4 addresses, akin to valuable real estate, are critical to online connectivity. The current global market for IPv4 addresses is valued at around $200 billion, but Heng believes that it could skyrocket to a staggering $60 trillion if its true value were unlocked. “IPv4 today is hugely undervalued,” he explained, pointing to systemic issues like the lack of recognized ownership and artificial liquidity restrictions imposed by the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
Also read: Interview with Lu Heng: The man who wants to decentralise IP addresses and save the internet
Also read: How many Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are there?
True value of IPv4 addresses could be $60 trillion
Heng stressed that the real value of IPv4 could be realized through greater awareness and involvement in the policy process governing these assets. He noted that many telecom and cloud providers already hold vast quantities of IPv4 addresses, which account for a significant portion of their market capitalization. “Even at today’s suppressed valuation, IP addresses contribute massively to telecoms’ market cap,” he said.
He urged industry leaders to take action and advocate for reforms that would grant full ownership and liquidity to IPv4, unlocking its full potential for growth and profit. “This is the first ever limited asset in our industry, and it’s time we wake up to the opportunity,” Heng concluded.
