ENS Developer Nick Johnson Proposes ENSv2 Activation, Pausing New Registrations

Ethereum Name Service lead developer Nick Johnson submitted a draft proposal to activate ENSv2 on Ethereum mainnet. If approved by the ENS DAO, the cutover will pause new .eth domain registrations for several hours, while more than 3 million existing domains remain operational. Migration to ENSv2 is optional but irreversible, moving legacy tokens into a Graveyard contract. The upgrade shifts renewal payments from ETH to stablecoins like USDC and DAI, raises annual fees for five-character or longer names by 60% from $5 to $8, and cuts grace periods from 90 to 28 days.