icannpigeon
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Over the last two TBR sessions (April 15 and 22, 2026), two of the participating registrars, WHC and BareMetal, captured 85.3% of all re-registered TBR domains. The market concentration index (HHI) came in at 4,648, nearly three times the threshold regulators classify as "highly concentrated."
~8–9 other accredited registrars in those sessions fought over the remaining 15%.
Data compiled from CIRA's API
No rule is being broken. WHC and BareMetal have simply invested in automation and infrastructure that submits requests at millisecond precision the moment the session opens. CIRA's rules apply equally on paper: one connection, one request every five seconds, per registrar. But "equal rules" and "equal outcomes" aren't the same thing when the playing field is decided by who can afford the better bot.
If CIRA were purely a private company, allowing market forces to reward better-resourced registrars would be unremarkable. But because CIRA operates as a non-profit steward of Canada’s .CA namespace with a public-interest mission, allowing its processes to consistently channel a scarce national resource (expiring .CA domains) toward a technical oligopoly might sit awkwardly against that mandate. The Canadian government's stated intent was for .CA to support as a "a key public resource for social and economic development for all Canadians", not to optimize outcomes for only few well-capitalized registrars.
So when CIRA's TBR process consistently channels expiring .CA domains toward whichever registrar has the best resources, it becomes a policy choice about who gets access to a national public resource.
Many registrars, including WHC and BareMetal, run their own auction systems when multiple clients request the same domain. In some cases, these auctions happen after the registrar has already secured the domain, effectively turning capture success into exclusive inventory. Meanwhile, CIRA’s rules govern the drop itself, but not what happens after a registrar wins the domain. The result is a two-stage system: a highly competitive, speed-based capture layer, followed by a fragmented and registrar-controlled resale layer.
A few questions worth asking:
Disclosure: I don’t work for, represent, or have any financial interest with any registrar. This is simply my independent observation based on publicly available data, shared out of curiosity and interest in how the TBR process works.
~8–9 other accredited registrars in those sessions fought over the remaining 15%.
Data compiled from CIRA's API
No rule is being broken. WHC and BareMetal have simply invested in automation and infrastructure that submits requests at millisecond precision the moment the session opens. CIRA's rules apply equally on paper: one connection, one request every five seconds, per registrar. But "equal rules" and "equal outcomes" aren't the same thing when the playing field is decided by who can afford the better bot.
If CIRA were purely a private company, allowing market forces to reward better-resourced registrars would be unremarkable. But because CIRA operates as a non-profit steward of Canada’s .CA namespace with a public-interest mission, allowing its processes to consistently channel a scarce national resource (expiring .CA domains) toward a technical oligopoly might sit awkwardly against that mandate. The Canadian government's stated intent was for .CA to support as a "a key public resource for social and economic development for all Canadians", not to optimize outcomes for only few well-capitalized registrars.
So when CIRA's TBR process consistently channels expiring .CA domains toward whichever registrar has the best resources, it becomes a policy choice about who gets access to a national public resource.
Many registrars, including WHC and BareMetal, run their own auction systems when multiple clients request the same domain. In some cases, these auctions happen after the registrar has already secured the domain, effectively turning capture success into exclusive inventory. Meanwhile, CIRA’s rules govern the drop itself, but not what happens after a registrar wins the domain. The result is a two-stage system: a highly competitive, speed-based capture layer, followed by a fragmented and registrar-controlled resale layer.
A few questions worth asking:
- Should CIRA cap how many domains a single registrar can capture per TBR session?
- Should expiring domains go through a transparent, registry-level auction rather than a speed race? Case study: .EE (Estonian Internet Foundation)
- Should CIRA require minimum automation standards so participation isn't limited to registrars who can afford high-frequency infrastructure?
Disclosure: I don’t work for, represent, or have any financial interest with any registrar. This is simply my independent observation based on publicly available data, shared out of curiosity and interest in how the TBR process works.
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