In the first quarter of 2026, $IOTA has consolidated its strategic focus to become the leading infrastructure provider for global trade. This evolution is detailed in a recently published book. $IOTA manifestooutlines a vision for a neutral, open, and scalable digital infrastructure that powers the global economy. We encourage all community members and partners to read the manifesto to understand our long-term commitment to the digitalization of international trade.
This quarter’s progress is as follows: World Trade Information Network (twin) Successful transition to operational stage and deployment of core protocol development capable of supporting global trade transactions.
Q1 2026 Overview
- Protocol evolution: Successfully rolled out Starfish consensus to Testnet and introduced Account Abstraction core to Devnet.
- Trade infrastructure: Established TWIN presence in the UK digital trade testbed and established multi-node connectivity between key institutions in Kenya.
- Enterprise deployment: Strategic pivot to technology consulting and ecosystem support, featuring significant interest in tokenized trade finance from Tier 1 financial hubs in South Korea and the Middle East.
- Ecosystem maturity: Integration with major exchange partners and $IOTA Expert advisory board to bridge the gap between DLT development and global logistics expertise.
Research and development (core protocols)
In the first quarter of 2026, $IOTA The Foundation’s research and development department focused on the stability and high-performance features of a protocol designed to support the demanding throughput requirements of global trade.
Core protocols and consensus
- Starting Starfish consensus: Version v1.16.0 successfully introduced the Starfish consensus mechanism. $IOTA‘s testnet provides the high-security, low-latency foundation needed for trade documents.
- Protocol v20 and IIP-8: $IOTA The main net is IIP-8 We are upgrading to introduce dynamic minimum validator fees based on voting rights to prevent concentration and promote decentralization.
- FastCommitSyncer: A new synchronizer was implemented and tested, increasing synchronization speed by a factor of 20-30, allowing failed nodes to catch up in minutes instead of hours.
Smart contract platforms, VMs, and tools
- Account Abstraction (AA): Core functionality of AA continued $IOTA Devnet, Alphanet, and Testnet enable programmable address authentication and simplify the user experience for participants outside of cryptocurrency trading.
- Proposals under consideration: two keys $IOTA Improvement proposals have been finalized to formalize the evolution of the protocol. IIP-0009 (AA specification) and IIP-0010 (package metadata).
- $IOTA name: Successfully launched on mainnet, $IOTA name Human-readable identifiers and direct updates are now possible.
- $IOTA Identity 1.9: Released with the SD-JWT upgrade to ensure compatibility with the W3C Data Model 2.0 standard.
Infrastructure performance
- Indexer upgrade: A new indexer server was deployed to all networks and approximately 80x performance improvement About >Legacy token migration Tools were added to mainnet this quarter.
Trade World Information Network (TWIN)
The TWIN ecosystem extends digital public infrastructure and facilitates global trade through verifiable data.
Adoption
- TLIP multi-node connection: Secure node-to-node communication was established between KenTrade, Kenya Revenue Authority, and nodes in the TLIP community to ensure that data remains at the source while ensuring shared visibility. I’ll be blogging about this soon, so stay tuned.
- Expansion of Rwanda: $IOTA successfully introduced Rwandan government officials to TLIP and collaborated with TradeMark Africa to explore a coffee export pilot.
- Adapt: Formal mobilization for the AfCFTA-led ADAPT initiative has begun, with a focus on establishing governance structures and initiating priority recruitment for Phase 1 implementation.
- twin foundation: The Steering Committee meeting was held in Nairobi on February 24th and 25th.
UK Port Initiatives
- Teesside Port ISN: $IOTA In collaboration with the UK Department of Business and Trade and the International Chamber of Commerce, we have agreed to establish an information sharing network at the Teesside Port facility, a strategically important UK digital trade testbed. (read more: Turn pilot into progress).
- $IOTA Expert Advisory Board: The foundation is $IOTA Expert advisory committee Brings senior trade, customs and logistics expertise directly into TWIN’s strategic development.
world market interest
- Strategic expansion: There has been a significant increase in interest from Tier 1 financial institutions and market infrastructure players. South Korea and middle eastespecially regarding tokenized trade finance and digital identity.
Communication and ecosystem
The first quarter continued our focus on expanding and formalizing builder success. $IOTAs story as an infrastructure leader.
- Exchange integration: $IOTA We have achieved a major ecosystem milestone. bullish exchange integrationstrengthening institutions’ access to liquidity and networks.
- Hackathon: of Masters× $IOTA hackathon More than 60 teams submitted structured product concepts, many focused on trade, RWA, and identity.
- Media outreach: The Department secured significant coverage of: $IOTAseconded to the UK Trade Initiative and the Cabinet Office. Going forward, we will strategically prioritize trade and logistics media outreach to expand our visibility beyond Web3’s domains and positions. $IOTA More specifically, it serves as the infrastructure for global trade and supply chains.
- community: We encourage deeper engagement on trade and supply chain topics. Community members who would like to contribute meaningfully in these areas, or who can leverage their connections in relevant industries, are welcome to actively participate and help promote them. $IOTAhas been successfully implemented in the real world.
- Social reach and engagement: There were 320 posts during the quarter, resulting in 1.5 million impressions and 41,000 engagements. From a PR perspective, there are about 50 news articles. $IOTA was published and mainly covered the release. $IOTA Manifesto.
Legal and governance
of $IOTA The Foundation’s legal and regulatory team continues to work with regulators around the world to support the Foundation’s transition to becoming a regulated global trade infrastructure provider.
- Joint answer: of $IOTA The Foundation, in collaboration with the SUI Foundation, the Cardano Foundation, and the Avalanche Policy Coalition, Formal response to the FCA About crypto asset staking and decentralized finance regulation in the UK.
- $IOTA Sustainability portal: The foundation announced that $IOTA Sustainability Portal energy consumption and sustainability metrics. $IOTA Network with power usage and emissions per transaction.
- In collaboration with Stand with Crypto: of $IOTA Foundation has become an official partner Cryptocurrency Standing with the EU Support policy initiatives and provide real-world examples of blockchain infrastructure. twin.
- Taxes and DeFi: The Foundation provided detailed feedback on the implementation of the OECD’s Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) in jurisdictions around the world, including the EU and Hong Kong.
- EU market integration package: The Foundation provided input to the European Commission’s call for feedback on a draft regulation aimed at promoting market integration and more efficient supervision in the EU, supporting stronger capital market integration and highlighting the need to remove regulatory barriers to the use of DLT in financial markets.
Conclusion and strategic outlook
The first quarter of 2026 is more than just the start of a new year for the United States. $IOTA Foundation. This quarter’s work is driven by one objective: to build TWIN into the world’s trusted digital infrastructure for global trade, across all sectors. From breakthrough advancements in protocols like Starfish and Account Abstraction, to real-world deployments in Kenya and the UK, to growing interest from institutional investors from major financial hubs. $IOTA The Foundation is making great progress.
As outlined in $IOTA Manifesto, we are committed to building a neutral, open, and scalable infrastructure that makes global commerce faster, cheaper, and more accessible for every country, business, and financial institution. In the coming quarters, we will go deeper, move faster and fully focus our team’s strengths on making TWIN a global success. This maintains the Foundation’s mission to enable real-world blockchain adoption on a global scale.
post $IOTA For an update on progress in Q1 2026, please visit $IOTA news.
