How Much Is My IPv4 Block Worth?

Why nobody publishes a straight number

Ask what IPv4 is worth per address and you will get a range wide enough to be useless. That is not evasion. It is that two blocks of identical size, in the same region, on the same day, can be worth materially different amounts, and the gap is driven by things that are not visible from the prefix alone.

The market is also genuinely opaque. Transfers are recorded by the registries, but prices are not, so there is no public tape to check against. What exists is what brokers see across the deals they handle.

So rather than a figure that would be wrong for your block, here is what actually moves the number, in roughly the order it matters.

1. Size, and not in the direction people expect

A /24 usually fetches a higher price per address than a very large block. This surprises people who expect a volume discount to run the other way.

The reason is the buyer pool. A /24 is the practical routing floor, most networks filter anything longer, and almost any buyer can absorb one. A /16 needs a buyer with both the requirement and the capital, and there are far fewer of those in the market on any given week. Larger blocks are often worth more in total and less per address, and they can take longer to place or need splitting.

2. Region

Where the block is registered changes both the buyer pool and the process. ARIN requires recipients to demonstrate need, which narrows the field of buyers who can complete quickly. RIPE does not, which makes RIPE space liquid. APNIC sits in between.

Whether a block can move between regions matters too, because a block that can transfer out of its home region has a wider market than one that cannot.

3. Reputation

This is the factor most likely to cost you real money, and the one most sellers have not checked.

If the space sits on widely enforced blocklists, buyers discount it or walk away, because they are buying something they cannot immediately use for email or for services that get reputation-filtered. Delisting is often possible, but it takes time and it has to happen before the sale rather than during it.

Check your block against the major lists before you go to market, not after a buyer does it for you.

4. Registration type

Ordinary provider aggregatable space, provider independent space and legacy blocks sit under different registry conditions, and buyers price those differences. Legacy space in particular attracts buyers who do not want to take on a membership relationship, which can widen your market rather than narrow it.

5. Documentation and chain of custody

A block whose history is clean and evidenced sells faster and closer to asking. A block where the registered entity has been through a merger, a rename, a dissolution or two decades of drift needs that gap closed before a transfer will complete.

This is the most common reason a deal that was agreed in principle stalls for weeks. If the organisation on the registry record is not exactly the organisation signing the transfer, start assembling that paper trail now.

6. Announcement and hijack history

Whether the space is currently routed, and by whom, is part of the picture. A block that has been announced by parties with no legitimate claim to it carries a problem the buyer inherits, and dormant blocks are a known target for exactly that.

The two things that stop a sale entirely

A holding period. Space received through a transfer cannot usually be transferred onward immediately. RIPE currently applies a 24-month restriction and ARIN 12 months. If you acquired the block recently, check this first, because everything else is academic until it expires.

An unresolvable entity mismatch. If the registered holder no longer exists in a form that can sign, that has to be fixed before a sale is possible at all.

Both are worth checking on day one rather than after you have agreed a price with someone.

What to have ready

A valuation takes minutes rather than days if you can supply:

• The prefix or prefixes, exactly as registered
• The registry they sit under
• The registered holder name, and whether it still matches your current legal entity
• Whether the space is currently announced, and from which ASN
• When you acquired it, if it came to you via transfer
• Whether you want to sell the whole thing or split it

That last point is worth thinking about. A large block will often realise more in total when broken into pieces that more buyers can absorb, provided each piece is still routable. A /24 is the floor.

Where RTM Networks fits

We value blocks for free and without obligation, in the RIPE, ARIN and APNIC regions. That means an honest read on what your specific block should achieve, what is holding the number down, and whether anything needs fixing before it goes to market.

We buy for our own inventory as well as brokering to a network of buyers, so in some cases the answer is simply an offer from us rather than a search. Send the prefix and the region and we will come back with a range and the reasoning behind it. We usually reply in 1-3 business hours.