# What is a .cc domain, and who runs it?

> .cc domains from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Verisign-run, open to anyone, 1 to 10 years. Pearlcay sells .cc with Domain protection, no KYC, paid in crypto.

- URL: https://pearlcay.com/cc-domain/
- Last updated: 2026-11-02
- Publisher: Pearlcay (https://pearlcay.com)

The .cc ending belongs to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory with fewer than 600 residents. Verisign runs it technically, anyone can register, and Pearlcay sells it only with Domain protection.

**Quick answer — What is a .cc domain, and can anyone register one?**

.cc is the country-code domain of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. Verisign runs it technically, and anyone in the world can register a name for 1 to 10 years. At **Pearlcay**, a .cc costs **$37.99/year** the first year and $37.99/year to renew (2 November 2026), paid in crypto with no KYC.

> **.cc is sold with Domain protection only** The .cc registry wants a full name and a postal address for the registrant, and we hold only an email address for each domain. We register it in our company name: the price shown, $37.99/year, is the extension price ($8.99) plus $29 a year for Domain protection.

## Search a .cc domain

Search a domain name: https://pearlcay.com/app/domains/?q=yourname.cc

Popular extensions: .cc ($37.99)

If the name is taken, or the registry refuses it, the full amount goes back to your balance.

## .cc at a glance

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Country code of | Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory |
| Registry | eNIC Cocos (Keeling) Islands Pty. Ltd. (trading as Island Internet Services) |
| Technical operator | Verisign (technical contact in the IANA record) |
| Who can register | Anyone, anywhere; no residency rule |
| Registration term | 1 to 10 years |
| Public WHOIS / RDAP | Owner details sit at the registrar; with Domain protection the owner of record is our company |
| Known for | Short generic names, and the Arduino project (arduino.cc) |

## .cc price per year

| Extension | 1st year | Renewal | Transfer | WHOIS privacy | Restrictions |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| .cc (With Domain protection only) | $37.99 | $37.99 | $37.99 | Our company details, not yours | None |

*1 extensions · prices per year in USD*

The price is the same in year one and at every renewal, and it includes Domain protection, which .cc requires. A transfer is priced like one renewal; registrars report that processing can take 1 to 10 days.

**[With Domain protection only](https://pearlcay.com/domain-protection-option/ "What is Domain protection, and do I need it?")**: sold only with Domain protection, so the registry and WHOIS show DomaineGoat LLC, never you. The price shown includes the $29/year for it.

## The Cocos (Keeling) Islands behind .cc

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are 27 coral islands in two atolls in the Indian Ocean, about 2,935 kilometres northwest of Perth, with 14 square kilometres of land (Geoscience Australia). Britain annexed them in 1857 and gave them to the Clunies-Ross family 29 years later. The Australian Government bought the islands in 1978, and in 1984 the islanders voted to keep their link with Australia. Only Home Island and West Island are inhabited. The 2021 census counted 593 people.

IANA, which keeps the root of the domain system, lists eNIC Cocos (Keeling) Islands Pty. Ltd., trading as Island Internet Services, as the manager of .cc. The technical contact is VeriSign Global Registry Services, and Verisign's own page says .cc is powered by Verisign, the company that also runs .com and .net. The record was last updated on 24 March 2026.

That makes .cc an island code with a commercial registry, not a village office. Nobody needs to live on the islands to hold a name, and the islands play no part in registrations. It is also an inexpensive code at wholesale: Cloudflare sells it at cost, $8.00 a year on 2 November 2026.

## Who uses a .cc domain?

The letters CC read well in several fields. They stand for Creative Commons in licence names such as CC BY 4.0, and for carbon copy in email. Communities and projects pick .cc for that reading, or simply for a short name that is not .com. The Arduino project runs its main site on arduino.cc, a name that registry data shows was created on 26 October 2005.

A word on reputation. co.cc was a free-subdomain service that used a name under .cc. In July 2011 Google removed more than 11 million co.cc sites from its search results, as The Register reported. That was a free service run by one operator, not the registry. Even so, test email delivery from a new .cc address before you rely on it for mail that matters.

At Pearlcay a .cc is sold with Domain protection, so the record shows our company, not you. Names that read across the dot are covered in [domain hacks](https://pearlcay.com/domain-hacks/ "What is a domain hack?"), though few English words end in cc.

## .cc price at other registrars

Prices listed on 2 November 2026. The Pearlcay line includes Domain protection, which .cc requires; the registrars below sell the bare domain, so the gap is mostly that service. Namecheap's $4.98 first year is a sale: its list price is $10.98.

| Registrar | First year | Renewal | Pays in crypto |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pearlcay | $37.99 | $37.99 | Yes, only crypto |
| Namecheap | $4.98 | $13.98 | Yes (BitPay or BTCPay, account funds first) |
| Cloudflare | $8.00 | $8.00 | No |
| Porkbun | $3.40 | $8.55 | Yes (USDC) |

*Last checked on November 2, 2026; older figures carry their own date.*

Prices per year in US dollars, from each registrar's public price list on 2 November 2026 (sources below). They change often: check before you buy.

## What are the .cc rules?

**Who can register.** Anyone, with no residency or local-presence rule. **Term.** One to ten years. **Transfers.** Gandi reports that a transfer in can take 1 to 10 days. At Pearlcay a transfer is priced like one renewal.

**Whois.** Verisign says the registrar publishes the registration details in a public database. Sources disagree on how much an owner can hide: one registrar FAQ says the .cc zone has no way to hide owner data, while a dataset says address, phone and email can be hidden and the name may stay visible. That is unclear, so we promise nothing beyond Domain protection, where the owner of record is our company and the lookup never shows you.

**Disputes.** Pearlcay handles trademark disputes through the UDRP.

**Domain protection.** The domain is registered in our company's name. You stay the beneficiary and can have it put in your own name for free, with a transfer lock and minimal data on record. A person reads every complaint before any action is taken. See [Domain protection](https://pearlcay.com/domain-protection-option/ "What is Domain protection, and do I need it?").

**Price risk.** The survey found no .cc price notice for 2025 or 2026: Verisign's 2026 notices cover only .com and .net.

## .cc questions

### Is .cc the country code of the Cocos Islands?

Yes. IANA lists .cc for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean. The registry sells it worldwide, and you do not need any link to the islands.

### Who runs the .cc registry?

IANA names eNIC Cocos (Keeling) Islands Pty. Ltd., trading as Island Internet Services, as the manager, with VeriSign Global Registry Services as the technical contact. Verisign says .cc is powered by Verisign.

### Why does Pearlcay sell .cc only with Domain protection?

The registry wants a full name and a postal address for the registrant, and Pearlcay keeps one email address per domain. So the domain is registered in our company's name. You stay the beneficiary and can have it moved to your own name for free.

### Does the .cc price change after the first year?

Not at Pearlcay: the first year and every renewal cost the same, Domain protection included. Elsewhere the first year is often lower: on 2 November 2026 Porkbun listed $3.40 then $8.55, and Namecheap's sale price was $4.98 then $13.98.

### Will my details appear in the .cc lookup?

With Domain protection the owner of record is our company, so the lookup shows it and never you. You stay the beneficiary, and a person reads every complaint before any action is taken.

### Can I pay for a .cc with crypto and no ID?

Yes. Pearlcay takes crypto only, from a prepaid balance. We ask for no identity document: the only data is one email address per domain, which is verified and kept private.

## Sources

1. [Delegation record for .CC](https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/cc.html) — IANA (checked 2026-11-02)
2. [Cocos (Keeling) Islands](https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/dimensions/remote-offshore-territories/cocos-keeling-islands) — Geoscience Australia (checked 2026-11-02)
3. [Cocos (Keeling) Islands, 2021 Census QuickStats](https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/901021002) — Australian Bureau of Statistics (checked 2026-11-02)
4. [.cc domains](https://www.verisign.com/domain-names/cc-domains) — Verisign (checked 2026-11-02)
5. [Google cans 11m dot co dot cc sites](https://www.theregister.com/2011/07/06/google_cans_11m_dot_co_dot_cc_sites/) — The Register (checked 2026-11-02)
6. [Namecheap full TLD list (.cc)](https://www.namecheap.com/domains/full-tld-list/) — Namecheap (checked 2026-11-02)
7. [Cloudflare Registrar search (.cc)](https://www.cloudflare.com/domains/search?q=name.cc) — Cloudflare (checked 2026-11-02)
8. [Porkbun public pricing API](https://api.porkbun.com/api/json/v3/pricing/get) — Porkbun (checked 2026-11-02)

## Other short extensions

- [.io domains](https://pearlcay.com/io-domain/ "What is a .io domain, and what about the Chagos question?")
- [.ai domains](https://pearlcay.com/ai-domain/ "What is a .ai domain, and who can register one?")
- [.co domains](https://pearlcay.com/co-domain/ "What does .co stand for, and who can register it?")
- [.me domains](https://pearlcay.com/me-domain/ "What is a .me domain, and is it only for personal sites?")
- [.tv domains](https://pearlcay.com/tv-domain/ "What is a .tv domain, and what does Tuvalu get from it?")
- [.cc domains](https://pearlcay.com/cc-domain/ "What is a .cc domain, and who runs it?")
- [.gg domains](https://pearlcay.com/gg-domain/ "What is a .gg domain, and who can register one?")
- [.so domains](https://pearlcay.com/so-domain/ "What is a .so domain, and can anyone outside Somalia register one?")
- [.sh domains](https://pearlcay.com/sh-domain/ "What is a .sh domain, and who can register one?")
- [.ws domains](https://pearlcay.com/ws-domain/ "What is a .ws domain, and does it stand for website?")
- [.la domains](https://pearlcay.com/la-domain/ "What is a .la domain: Laos or Los Angeles?")
- [.fm domains](https://pearlcay.com/fm-domain/ "What is a .fm domain, and is it only for radio?")
- [.ac domains](https://pearlcay.com/ac-domain/ "What is a .ac domain, and is it only for universities?")
- [.pw domains](https://pearlcay.com/pw-domain/ "What is a .pw domain, and what does it stand for?")
- [.vc domains](https://pearlcay.com/vc-domain/ "What is a .vc domain, and is it only for venture capital?")

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Pearlcay: Pearlcay registers short country-code domains, most of them island extensions: .ai (Anguilla), .io (Chagos Islands), .gg (Guernsey), .sh (Saint Helena), .tv (Tuvalu) and ten more, paid in crypto with no KYC: no ID, only one verified email per domain. It is run by DomaineGoat LLC, a company registered in Panama; domains are registered through its ICANN-accredited registrar partner. A .ai costs $86.99/year, sold for at least 2 years.