How to Sell or Lease Your IPv4 Block: A 7-Step Preparation Guide for IP Owners

When IP owners decide to sell their IPv4 addresses - or lease them for recurring income - the listing itself takes minutes. What takes time - and what determines whether your block earns from day one or sits in review for weeks - is everything that happens before you submit it.

Unprepared blocks get flagged during onboarding. Blocks with active blacklist entries attract low-quality tenants or no tenants at all. Stale RIPE database objects create routing friction that makes lessees walk away. Missing or incorrectly scoped LOAs delay go-live.

None of this is complicated to fix - but it needs to be done in the right order, before you list. This guide walks through each step.

Why Monetize Your IPv4 Space Now?

RIPE NCC exhausted its available IPv4 pool in 2019. Since then, all IPv4 addresses in the RIPE region change hands through the transfer market - and prices have risen steadily as a result. Clean, properly documented blocks are in demand, and that demand isn't going away.

Current market rates in the RIPE region:

• Permanent sale: ~$25–30 per IP (one-time payment)

• Leasing: ~$0.38–0.50 per IP per month (recurring income)
  
  

What that means in practice, by block size:

Calculate the exact earnings potential for your block size →

Two Paths to Monetization

There are two ways to earn from IPv4 addresses you own.

The first is a permanent sale - a single payment, a full transfer, and the asset leaves your portfolio. The second is leasing - recurring monthly income while you retain ownership, with the option to sell later at a potentially higher price.

The good news: both paths require the same preparation. The 7 steps below apply whether you're planning to sell your IPv4 block or lease it. The difference comes later, at the point of execution.

For a detailed financial comparison of both options, see our full analysis → 

Step 1: Check your block's reputation

This is the step most owners skip, and the most expensive one to skip. Run your block through the major blacklist databases before anything else. If there are active listings, they need to be resolved before you list - not after a tenant raises a complaint. This step applies equally whether you plan to sell your IPv4 addresses or lease them - a block with active blacklist entries will face scrutiny on any marketplace.

The databases worth checking, and what each covers:

• Spamhaus (spamhaus.org) - the most widely referenced blacklist for email and network abuse. An active Spamhaus listing will cause deliverability failures for any lessee doing email work and raises immediate flags on most IP leasing platforms. Check the SBL (Spamhaus Block List), XBL (Exploits Block List), and PBL (Policy Block List) separately - they have different delisting procedures.

• MXToolbox (mxtoolbox.com/blacklists) - runs your block against 100+ blacklists simultaneously. Good for a fast first pass and for identifying listings on databases you might not check individually.

• AbuseIPDB (abuseipdb.com) - community-reported abuse database covering network-level incidents beyond email: brute force attempts, port scanning, DDoS participation. Increasingly checked by infrastructure-focused lessees.

• Barracuda (barracudacentral.org/lookups) - significant for email-heavy operators. Has a specific self-service delisting process that requires a waiting period if the block has recent abuse history.

• Cisco Talos (talosintelligence.com/reputation-center) - threat intelligence database consulted by security teams. Poor Talos reputation can block a lessee's traffic at the network perimeter of their clients.

A "clean" block means no active listings and no significant recent abuse history. Some historical entries are acceptable if the block has been unused long enough - most blacklists auto-expire entries after 30 to 90 days of inactivity. What matters is the current state.

One thing to be aware of: reputation systems evaluate entire subnets, not just individual IPs. If you're listing a /22, the reputation of every /24 within it affects how lessees and platforms assess the block. Check at the /24 level for each subnet you plan to list.

If you find active listings: contact the relevant blacklist operator directly, provide evidence of ownership and a description of the remediation steps taken, and allow time for delisting before submitting to a marketplace. Some databases delist within 24 hours; others have mandatory waiting periods of several weeks.

IPbnb checks every block against Spamhaus, CBL, and major blacklists before listing and monitors daily throughout the lease term. Owners who arrive with pre-verified clean blocks clear the onboarding check faster and get matched with tenants sooner. See how IPbnb handles trust and compliance →

Step 2: Verify and update your RIPE database objects

RIPE records are what lessees, downstream networks, and abuse desks look at to verify that a block is legitimate and properly managed. Outdated or incorrect objects create friction at every stage of the leasing relationship. For a sale, accurate RIPE records are equally critical - buyers and their due diligence process will check the same objects.

Work through each relevant object:

• inetnum object

Confirm that the organization name, address, and description fields are current. If the block was received years ago under a previous legal entity name, or if your company has changed addresses since registration, update this before listing. Outdated registrant information is a yellow flag for experienced lessees and triggers additional scrutiny during platform onboarding.

• admin-c and tech-c contacts

These are the contacts that abuse desks and platforms reach out to when something goes wrong with the block. Verify that both contacts are active, monitored, and accessible to someone who can respond to abuse reports. An abuse complaint that sits in an unmonitored inbox for 48 hours becomes a pattern. Platforms treat unresponsive admin contacts as a risk signal.

• abuse-c / abuse mailbox

RIPE requires every resource to have a valid, monitored abuse-c contact. Verify the email address is working, that someone actively monitors it, and that your team knows the expected response time. On IPbnb, abuse complaint handling is managed by the platform - but RIPE still expects the registrant's abuse contact to be reachable. For more on how abuse is handled during a lease, see how IPbnb manages trust and compliance →

• mnt-by (maintainer object)

Your maintainer credentials control who can modify your RIPE objects. If you have lost access to the maintainer - a surprisingly common issue with blocks that have been dormant for years - you cannot make any changes needed for leasing, including creating sub-allocations or updating route objects. Recover maintainer access before attempting to list. RIPE NCC has a formal recovery process; it requires organizational documentation and takes time, so don't leave this until the last moment.

• route objects

Check whether existing route objects reference the correct origin ASN. If the block was previously announced by an upstream that no longer has a relationship with you, their ASN may still be listed in your route objects. Stale route objects pointing to old ASNs need to be removed before the lessee's ASN can be properly configured. A lessee attempting to announce the block with a conflicting route object in place will face routing issues from the start.

Step 3: Withdraw active BGP announcements

If the block is currently being announced in BGP - even partially - it needs to be cleanly withdrawn before a lessee can take over. A block that remains announced by the original holder while a lessee is trying to establish their own announcement creates routing conflicts that are difficult to diagnose and slow to resolve.

To check the current BGP state of your block, use any of these:

• BGPView (bgpview.io) - shows current announcements, originating ASN, and upstream peers

• RIPE Stat RIS (stat.ripe.net) - authoritative data for RIPE-region prefixes, including historical routing visibility

• Hurricane Electric BGP Toolkit (bgp.he.net) - useful for checking what different networks are seeing

Look for: active prefix announcements, the originating ASN, and any more-specific routes (sub-/24 announcements that may not be immediately obvious).

If there are announcements from an old upstream that you no longer have a relationship with: contact that AS directly and request route withdrawal. You may need to provide documentation of ownership. Allow 24 to 72 hours for the withdrawal to propagate across the global routing table before treating the prefix as clean.

For partially announced blocks - where you're listing a /23 out of a larger /21 you're still using - coordinate the routing handoff carefully with the lessee and their upstream before the lease starts. The technical workflow for this is covered in detail in how IPv4 leasing works →

Step 4: Check and configure RPKI

RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure) adoption is no longer optional in practice. As of 2025, approximately 72% of IPv4 space in the RIPE NCC service region is covered by Route Origin Authorizations, and major networks including Cloudflare, NTT, and most Tier-1 carriers enforce Route Origin Validation. A block without a valid ROA faces increasing filtering from networks that reject RPKI-invalid or unvalidated routes.

There are three possible states for your block's RPKI status, and they are not equally neutral:

Valid ROA - a ROA exists that correctly authorizes the expected originating ASN. This is the target state. Traffic from the lessee's ASN will be accepted by ROV-enforcing networks.

Invalid ROA - a ROA exists but references the wrong ASN, or the prefix length doesn't match. This is worse than having no ROA at all. Networks enforcing ROV will actively drop routes covered by an invalid ROA. This typically happens when a previous operator created a ROA that was never removed. An invalid ROA from a previous configuration must be revoked before the block can be leased.

No ROA - no ROA exists. Currently neutral, meaning the route will be accepted as "not found" by most ROV-enforcing networks. But this window is narrowing as enforcement tightens.

To check current ROA status: use RIPE Stat's RPKI validation tool or Cloudflare's RPKI monitor at rpki.cloudflare.com. Enter your prefix and confirm which state it's in.

For RIPE NCC members, ROA management is done directly through the RIPE NCC portal under "Resource Certification." If you have delegated RPKI to a third party or to a platform, confirm who holds the ability to create and revoke ROAs for your block before listing. On IPbnb, RPKI management during the lease is handled as part of the platform's routing security layer - including ROA creation for the lessee's ASN after onboarding. For details on how this works, see IPbnb's trust and compliance approach →

Step 5: Prepare your LOA (Lease) or Transfer Documentation (Sale)

The Letter of Authorization is the document that grants the lessee the right to announce your block under their ASN. On platforms like IPbnb, the LOA is generated and issued as part of the listing and matching process. But understanding what a valid LOA requires means you can confirm that your entity details are in order before onboarding - which avoids delays.

A valid LOA needs to include:

• Your legal entity name, exactly as registered with RIPE NCC

• The block CIDR notation, matching the RIPE inetnum record precisely

• The authorized ASN (the lessee's ASN)

• The authorized scope - BGP announcement, and if relevant, specific cloud provider BYOIP deployment (AWS, GCP, Azure each require explicit permission in the LOA)

• A validity period

• Signature by an authorized representative of the legal entity

The most common LOA failures: the LOA is signed by someone without legal signing authority for the organization; the CIDR doesn't match the inetnum exactly; BYOIP scope isn't mentioned explicitly when the lessee plans a cloud deployment; or the LOA expires before the lessee finishes their onboarding process.

For BYOIP use cases specifically, each cloud provider has its own LOA format requirements. AWS, GCP, and Azure all require specific language confirming authorization for their platform. A generic LOA will be rejected. If you expect your block to be used for BYOIP, discuss this with IPbnb during onboarding - the platform handles LOA issuance with the correct scope. More on BYOIP requirements here: BYOIP with leased IPv4 on AWS, GCP, and Azure →

IPbnb generates the LOA with the correct scope for your tenant.

Note: the LOA is specific to leasing arrangements. If you're preparing for a permanent sale, the relevant document is the transfer authorization issued through RIPE NCC's transfer process - but the underlying block preparation (reputation, RIPE objects, RPKI) is identical regardless of which path you take.

Step 6: Confirm the 24-month hold period status, and Why It Matters for Both Paths

The RIPE NCC 24-month transfer restriction is a frequent source of confusion for owners preparing to list. Here's the short version: the restriction applies to permanent transfers - buying and selling. It does not apply to leasing.

If you received your block via a RIPE transfer in the past 24 months, you cannot sell it during that window. But you can lease it immediately. The 24-month rule does not restrict leasing in any way.

Think about what this means in concrete financial terms:

• Option A: wait 24 months, then sell a /22 for approximately $25,600

• Option B: lease immediately, earn approximately $389–512/month - roughly $9,400–12,300 over 24 months - then decide whether to sell or continue leasing

After the hold period ends, Option B owners have already recovered a significant portion of the asset's sale value, and still hold the asset. The 24-month window isn't dead time - it's earning time.

This matters strategically. If you acquired a block recently and were waiting out the hold period before monetizing, you don't need to wait. Leasing is available now, and the income generated during that hold period adds up. A /22 leased at $0.40/IP for 24 months generates approximately $9,800 before fees - income that would otherwise sit on the table.

To verify your block's transfer date: check the object history in the RIPE database via RIPE Stat or by reviewing the inetnum object directly. The last-modified date and associated transfer records will show when ownership was established.

Don't wait to monetize. Start leasing during the hold period. List your block →

Step 7: Set your terms before you list

Owners who list without having thought through their commercial terms often accept defaults that don't serve their interests. A few decisions to make in advance:

Monetization path. Before setting any terms, confirm which path you're taking: lease, sell, or list for both and decide based on incoming offers. Each path has different mechanics on the platform - your IPbnb account manager can walk you through the options during onboarding.

Lease duration. Month-to-month arrangements give tenants flexibility but give you less income predictability. Longer minimum terms - three or six months - reduce churn and provide more stable revenue. Consider what matters more for your situation.

Pricing. Current market rates for clean RIPE-region blocks run $0.38 to $0.50 per IP per month, with well-maintained blocks at the upper end. Price below market and your block leases fast but earns less. Price above market and it sits. Use the IPbnb earnings calculator → to model different scenarios for your block size before setting a price.

Acceptable use. Think in advance about what use cases you will and won't permit - email sending, VPN, proxies, hosting, data collection. Some uses carry higher baseline abuse risk. Your acceptable use terms are enforced by the platform during tenant screening, but you can set the parameters. On IPbnb, the platform's Acceptable Use Policy covers the baseline - you can discuss additional restrictions during onboarding if needed.

Commission structure. IPbnb charges a commission of 15% for new partners, reducing to 12% for high-volume holders (10,000+ IPs). New partners start at 15% for the first three months, then move to the rate that reflects their volume. There are no additional hidden fees - the commission is the only deduction from your listed price. Full commission detail is on the pricing page →

If you're preparing for a sale: the key terms to agree in advance are asking price relative to current market ($25–30/IP for clean RIPE-region blocks), escrow arrangements, and the expected transfer timeline (typically 2–4 weeks through RIPE NCC's process).

What Happens After You List

Once your block is submitted to IPbnb, the process moves quickly - provided the preparation steps above are complete.

The typical timeline:

1. listing submitted

2. reputation and documentation verified (hours, if the block is clean)

3. matched with a qualified tenant or buyer

4. first inquiry received

5. deal confirmed

6. payment initiated

For leasing: your first payment typically arrives within the first month of the lease starting.

For a sale: the RIPE NCC transfer process generally takes 2–4 weeks from agreement to completion, depending on documentation readiness and NCC workload.

A well-prepared, clean block typically receives leasing interest within days of listing. Blocks that arrive at onboarding with all preparation steps complete move through review in hours, not days - and tenant matching starts immediately.

Pre-listing checklist

Before submitting your block, confirm each of the following:

1. Reputation checked - no active blacklist entries on Spamhaus, MXToolbox, AbuseIPDB, and Barracuda; historical entries reviewed

2. RIPE objects current - inetnum, admin-c, tech-c, and abuse-c are accurate and monitored

3. Maintainer access confirmed - you can log in to the RIPE portal and make changes

4. Route objects clean - no stale route objects referencing old ASNs

5. BGP withdrawn - no active prefix announcements; propagation cleared

6. RPKI verified - no invalid ROAs; ROA plan agreed with platform for lessee's ASN

7. LOA scope confirmed - entity details correct; BYOIP scope noted if applicable - or transfer documentation prepared if selling

8. 24-month hold status confirmed - selling is restricted during the hold period; leasing is available immediately

9. Monetization path and terms decided - pricing, minimum duration, acceptable use - or sale price, escrow, and transfer timeline if selling

A block that arrives at onboarding with all nine items in order moves through review in hours, not days. Tenant matching starts immediately. There are no surprises mid-lease that trace back to something that should have been caught before listing.

ding with all nine items in order moves through review in hours, not days. Tenant matching starts immediately. There are no surprises mid-lease that trace back to something that should have been caught before listing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I sell my IPv4 addresses if I received them via a RIPE transfer less than 24 months ago?

No - the RIPE NCC 24-month transfer restriction prevents permanent sales during that window. However, you can lease your block immediately. Many owners use the hold period to generate recurring lease income and then decide whether to sell once the restriction lifts.

What is the current market price for IPv4 addresses in the RIPE region?

Clean RIPE-region blocks sell for approximately $25–30 per IP in 2026. For leasing, market rates run $0.38–0.50 per IP per month, with well-maintained blocks at the upper end of that range.

How long does it take to sell IPv4 addresses?

The RIPE NCC transfer process typically takes 2–4 weeks from signed agreement to completion. Preparation - reputation checks, RIPE object updates, RPKI configuration - should be done before listing to avoid delays once a buyer is found.

Is leasing IPv4 addresses better than selling?

It depends on your timeline. A sale delivers a single payment of approximately $25–30/IP. Leasing generates approximately $0.40/IP/month in recurring income. The breakeven point is typically 5–6 years - after that, cumulative lease income exceeds what a sale would have returned. If you need capital immediately, selling makes sense. If you can hold the asset, leasing typically returns more over time.

What documents do I need to sell or lease my IPv4 block?

For leasing: a Letter of Authorization (LOA) granting the lessee the right to announce the block under their ASN. For a sale: transfer authorization through RIPE NCC's formal transfer process. In both cases, your RIPE registration records, maintainer access, and RPKI configuration need to be current before the process can begin.

What happens if my block has blacklist entries - can I still list it?

Active blacklist entries need to be resolved before listing. Most blacklists have a self-service delisting process; timelines range from 24 hours to several weeks depending on the database and the nature of the listing. IPbnb checks every block during onboarding - arriving with a pre-verified clean block speeds up the process significantly.

Ready to monetize your IPv4 space? See how IPv4 monetization works on IPbnb → or go straight to calculating what your block is worth with the earnings calculator →