Activists are pushing for the release of over 250 million unused IPv4 addresses, known as the “240/4” block, to address the IPv4 exhaustion problem. These addresses are worth around $7 billion but were set aside for future use or experiments in the early days of the internet. However, the proposal to release these addresses has faced opposition, with concerns about implementation and compatibility with existing networking equipment. The use of the 240/4 block has also been recognized by big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Verizon internally. Some argue that freeing up IPv4 addresses may delay the migration to IPv6. The debate over the fate of IPv4 is ongoing, but the potential release of the 240/4 block could have a significant impact.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/240_4_ipv4_block_activism/