Results · 2026-04-22

# The TBR Drop: 194 Domains Caught from 10,430 Released

On Wednesday, 10,430 domains expired and hit the CIRA TBR pool. When the dust settled, 194 found new homes—a 1.86% catch rate that's quiet by historical standards, but what was caught tells a sharp story about who's hunting and what still moves the needle.

WHC Online Solutions Inc. dominated the session, landing 126 domains with surgical precision. The registrar didn't just pack volume; it cherry-picked the real prizes. Hula.ca—a four-character brand-100 word—went straight to them, along with repel.ca, hevea.ca, hegel.ca, lueur.ca, mortgager.ca, and audiophiles.ca. That's not luck; that's a registrar that knows what sticks. BareMetal.com inc came in second with 41 catches and showed similar taste, grabbing eclipser.ca, sporty.ca, hideouts.ca, guerriers.ca, leeway.ca, karol.ca, and fasting.ca. Both registrars built their haul on solid, brandable dictionary words in the 5-9 character sweet spot.

The mid-tier operators picked their spots carefully. MyID.ca INC. caught just 16 but snagged peewee.ca—a six-character crowd-pleaser that deserves a mention. DomainePlus.com and Grape Inc. each landed three domains; DomainePlus got concise.ca while Grape claimed noodles.ca and ageless.ca. Register.ca and Webnames.ca stayed lean with two apiece, and Register.ca Inc. at least locked down cookies.ca, which is about as universally useful as TLDs get. The open pool will see the rest.

What's striking is what didn't get caught. Gnaw.ca and abbr.ca—both four-character, brand-100 words—sat untouched. So did nuas.ca, another short-form hit. Pachyderm.ca, christendom.ca, corroborate.ca, and humanitarians.ca all slipped through, which suggests the pool had either marginal dictionary appeal or registrars simply weren't swinging at longer, niche words this week. Groupie.ca and relique.ca hanging in the pool is genuinely odd; those are solid middle-market names.

The spread of catches across registrars—WHC taking 65% of the total—shows consolidation in the hunt, but not monopoly. There's still room for smaller players like Grape Inc. and MyID.ca to thread the needle on specialty grabs. The 1.86% catch rate reflects a quiet week, but the quality of what went says the hunters were awake: dictionary-first, brand-adjacent, and short. That's the market speaking.