What is .moto?
Brand TLDs operate under Specification 13 of ICANN's registry agreement. It lets a trademark owner keep every second-level name for itself, so you won't find .moto names for sale at any registrar.
.moto entered the DNS root zone on November 12, 2016, 9 years ago. It came out of ICANN's New gTLD Program, the 2012 application round that grew the root from 22 generic TLDs to well over a thousand.
On the technical side, .moto is served by 6 authoritative name servers, every one of them reachable over IPv6. It is also DNSSEC-signed: the root zone carries a DS record for .moto, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.moto).
.moto FAQ
What country is .moto?
None. .moto is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .moto domain extension?
Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC operates .moto as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .moto created?
.moto was delegated to the DNS root zone on November 12, 2016.
Is .moto a valid domain?
Yes. .moto is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2016, so .moto addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .moto domain?
No. .moto is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC.
Is .moto DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .moto.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed February 7, 2025. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
