When we started building ENS.Tools, we expected search or the marketplace to become the centre of gravity. Instead, our most-used feature is the Expiry Explorer. It is the page people return to because it answers a much more immediate question: what good names are about to become registerable?
That question used to require an indexer, a spreadsheet, lifecycle calculations, repeated contract checks, and plenty of refreshing. Expiry Explorer compresses the whole workflow into one page. Find a name, watch its price fall, and register it from the same row.
Why expiry beats ordinary search
A normal domain search starts with a word in your head. Expiry discovery starts with live inventory. That difference is why the page is so sticky: every visit can surface a name that was not actionable yesterday.
- Grace Period is the forward-looking list. These names have expired, but only the previous owner can extend them during the 90-day protection window.
- Temp Premium is the live opportunity set. Anyone can register these names now, with a premium that declines throughout the 21-day window.
- Just Dropped is the bargain bin. The temporary premium has ended and the name is available at its standard registration price, first come, first served.
Put together, those three tabs turn a protocol lifecycle into something closer to a live arrivals board. You can see what is coming, what is buyable now, and what just reached base price.
What “sniping” an ENS name actually means
“Sniping” sounds more dramatic than it is. In this context, it means registering a lapsed name after the previous registrant's protected window has ended, before another buyer does. It does not mean taking an active name or jumping ahead of its owner.
The ENS name lifecycle is deliberately predictable. After expiry, the previous registrant gets 90 days to extend at the standard price. Nobody else can register the name during that time. If it is still not extended, it becomes available to everyone with a temporary premium that starts at $100 million and falls to $0 over 21 days.
The giant opening premium prevents a gas war at the instant grace ends. From there, every buyer faces the same trade-off: pay more now for a better chance of getting the name, or wait for a lower price and accept that somebody else may move first.
How to snipe a name with Expiry Explorer
- Browse before connecting a wallet. Open Expiry Explorer and look through the three lifecycle tabs. Temp Premium opens by default because those names are registerable now.
- Cut the list down. Filter by label length, letters or numbers, starting and ending characters, emoji, Unicode, or a known collection. You can jump straight into categories such as the 999 Club, 10k Club or four-letter names.
- Build a shortlist. Star interesting names while they are in grace, then return as they approach temporary premium. For names already in premium, watch the displayed price and decay progress instead of calculating the curve yourself.
- Choose your price before clicking. Decide what the name is worth to you, including the annual registration price and gas. The best time to act is not a universal day on the curve; it is the moment the displayed total falls below your personal ceiling.
- Register in two transactions. Connect your wallet and use the Register action. The first transaction submits a hash of your intended registration while keeping the name and secret hidden, which helps prevent someone from copying your registration out of the mempool. After the protocol's minimum wait of about 60 seconds, the second transaction reveals the commitment and registers the name.
One detail matters: a commitment is not a reservation. More than one person can commit to the same name, and the first valid registration transaction to land wins. Expiry Explorer checks availability and refreshes the registrar quote during the flow, but no interface can guarantee that a contested name will still be there when the reveal is submitted.
The hard part is no longer the tooling
Expiry sniping is easy mechanically. The hard part is judgement.
If you care more about getting one specific name than getting the lowest possible price, register earlier in temporary premium. If you care more about the deal than the exact name, wait. If somebody takes it at a price above your ceiling, they did not beat your strategy; they made a different trade-off.
This is also why Expiry Explorer keeps getting used. The answer changes constantly. The inventory moves from grace to premium, premiums keep falling, and names disappear when somebody registers them. It rewards a quick daily check without demanding that users run infrastructure of their own.
A note on responsible catches
A name becoming available does not erase trademark, impersonation, or phishing risk. Avoid registering names to mislead people about who you are, and be especially careful with brands, wallet services, and lookalike Unicode labels. The best catches are useful generic words, memorable personal identities, and collection names you can represent honestly.
The other side of our most-used feature
For buyers, Expiry Explorer is a hunting tool. For owners, it is a reminder that an ENS name is only yours while its registration is maintained. If a name matters to you, do not let it become somebody else's best find of the day. Check your ENS portfolio and extend early.
For everyone else, the loop is simple: browse, filter, pick your price, commit, reveal. What once felt like a specialist drop-catching workflow now fits on a single page.
See what is falling now: open Expiry Explorer →