IOTA (MIOTA)

Overview

IOTA is a public network for moving digital assets and recording information that others can verify. Its native token is called IOTA. The name MIOTA still appears in older material: it once meant one million of the network’s smallest units, but a 2023 change made that amount simply one IOTA. The network grew from an early focus on connected devices into a platform for digital trade, identity, and smart contracts. (blog.iota.org)

IOTA’s current mainnet combines a directed acyclic graph, or DAG, with software that can run programs written in Move. People can use the token to pay network fees, transfer value, and help secure the network through staking. Developers can build applications on the mainnet or use IOTA’s separate Ethereum-compatible network, IOTA EVM. (iota.org)

History & Team

From connected devices to digital trade

IOTA began in 2015 with a vision of helping devices exchange data and small payments. Its early development was funded by a public token sale. The IOTA Foundation became a registered nonprofit in Berlin, Germany, in 2017 after community members donated tokens to support the project. Today, the Foundation works on the network’s technology and its use in industries such as trade and logistics. (blog.iota.org)

The project’s early founders include David Sønstebø, Dominik Schiener, Sergey Ivancheglo, and Serguei Popov. Popov wrote the first paper describing the IOTA Tangle. Schiener has continued to serve as a leading voice for the Foundation. The project has also drawn support from its early token holders and, later, from organizations set up to fund ecosystem development in Europe and Abu Dhabi. (blog.iota.org)

Several upgrades changed how IOTA operates. The Stardust upgrade introduced a new token denomination and funding model. On May 5, 2025, the Rebased mainnet went live, bringing Move smart contracts and delegated proof of stake to the core network. It also removed the Coordinator, a feature that had played a central role in earlier versions. (blog.iota.org)

Technology & How It Works

A graph of linked records

A DAG links records in a branching structure instead of arranging every record in one simple line. IOTA uses this structure as part of its approach to processing network activity. The current ledger is also object-based: a coin or another digital asset can be represented as an object with rules about who owns it and how it may change. This gives developers a way to describe assets and their behavior in code. (iota.org)

Move is the programming language used for smart contracts on IOTA’s mainnet. A smart contract is a program that carries out agreed rules, such as transferring an asset after certain conditions are met. Move’s design treats digital assets as resources, which helps developers write rules for creating, transferring, and managing them. IOTA EVM provides another route: developers can build with Solidity and familiar Ethereum tools on an Ethereum-compatible layer connected to IOTA. (blog.iota.org)

Validators and agreement

IOTA uses delegated proof of stake. Validators check transactions and help the network agree on its records. Token holders can delegate IOTA to a validator while keeping ownership of their tokens. Validators and delegators may receive newly issued IOTA for their part in securing the network. (iota.org)

In April 2026, IOTA activated Starfish as its mainnet consensus system. Consensus is the process that lets validators agree on the state of the ledger. Starfish was designed to keep that process moving when network messages are slow or delayed—an important feature for applications that depend on shared records across many organizations. (blog.iota.org)

Tokenomics & Utility

The IOTA token has three main jobs. It pays for network activity, serves as the asset delegated to validators, and can be held as a deposit when data takes up space on the ledger. Fees are based on the resources a transaction uses. An application can also pay a user’s fee through a sponsored transaction, making the fee less visible to the person using the app. (iota.org)

IOTA’s economic model changed with Rebased. The network can issue up to 767,000 new IOTA per roughly daily epoch for validator and delegator rewards. Transaction fees burn a small amount of tokens, meaning those tokens leave the supply. There is no fixed maximum supply; the stated issuance limit keeps possible growth linear rather than allowing the number of new tokens per day to rise without limit. Some tokens created under the earlier Stardust funding plan also follow a scheduled unlock. (iota.org)

Storage deposits serve a different purpose from transaction fees. They connect the cost of keeping data on the ledger to the space it uses; a storage rebate can be recovered when eligible data is removed. Together, fees, deposits, and staking rewards form the incentives behind the network’s operation. (iota.org)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Trade records and trusted information

Digital trade is a major focus for IOTA. The Trade Worldwide Information Network, or TWIN, uses IOTA technology to help businesses and authorities share verifiable supply-chain information. A shipment may involve exporters, carriers, customs offices, and buyers, each holding a different part of its paperwork. TWIN aims to help them exchange trusted digital records without relying on repeated paper checks. IOTA says TWIN was integrated with its mainnet in early 2026. (iota.org)

An earlier effort, the Trade Logistics Information Pipeline, has involved work with trade authorities in Kenya. The broader ADAPT initiative is developing shared digital-trade infrastructure in Africa, with Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria named as its first implementation countries. These efforts bring together identity checks, document exchange, and payment connections. They show how a ledger can support a trade process even when most of the work happens between businesses and public agencies. (blog.iota.org)

IOTA also offers tools for digital identity, notarization, and tokenization. Digital identity can help a person or organization prove a claim about itself. Notarization can record evidence that a document existed in a particular form. Tokenization represents an asset or record digitally, making it easier to track or transfer under programmed rules. Developers can use these tools on the Move-based mainnet, while IOTA EVM supports applications built with Ethereum-style smart contracts. (iota.org)

Advantages & Challenges

IOTA’s main strength is the range of tasks its network can handle. It brings payments, programmable assets, and verifiable records into one ecosystem. Its two smart-contract environments give developers a choice between Move on the mainnet and Solidity on IOTA EVM. Sponsored fees can also help an application present a simpler experience to people who have never used a crypto wallet. (iota.org)

Its challenges are partly technical and partly practical. Rebased introduced a different way to build applications, so projects using older IOTA designs have to adapt. A trade network also needs organizations to agree on document formats, identity checks, and everyday procedures. IOTA’s recent progress reports describe that work in concrete terms, including connections between Kenyan trade agencies and preparations for port-related pilots in the United Kingdom. Broad use depends on those connections becoming part of routine operations. (blog.iota.org)

Where to Buy & Wallets

IOTA can be purchased on exchanges including Binance, OKX, Gate, and Bitvavo. Available services and trading pairs vary by location. The current token is generally listed as IOTA, while MIOTA remains a name readers may encounter in older guides. (coingecko.com)

The IOTA Wallet browser extension can hold tokens, connect to applications, and delegate tokens to validators. The IOTA Wallet Dashboard adds tools for managing assets carried over from the Stardust ledger. Ledger devices can connect through the current IOTA wallet setup, and Nightly is another wallet option with mobile support. Firefly, the wallet used in an earlier stage of the network, was replaced for the Rebased mainnet. (iota.org)

Regulatory & Compliance

The IOTA Foundation is registered in Germany, while an IOTA ecosystem foundation was registered under Abu Dhabi Global Market’s framework for distributed-ledger foundations. Those are organizational arrangements. Rules for offering, trading, or using crypto assets depend on the activity and the jurisdiction. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation sets requirements for crypto-asset service providers and certain token disclosures. In the United States, businesses that exchange or transmit convertible virtual currency may fall under financial-crime rules, and the IRS generally treats digital assets as property for federal tax purposes. (blog.iota.org)

IOTA received a Shari’a-compliance certificate from the Cambridge Institute of Islamic Finance on July 15, 2024. The certificate describes the token as meeting generally accepted Shari’a requirements while the conditions in its assessment and governance framework are followed. The Foundation said the institute would provide annual reviews. This certification addresses Islamic-finance principles; legal requirements for exchanges, businesses, and users still follow the rules of their own jurisdictions. (files.iota.org)

Future Outlook

IOTA’s direction centers on using its mainnet as shared infrastructure for trade, identity, and digital assets. TWIN and ADAPT give that work defined settings: customs documents, supply-chain records, and connections between national systems. Continued development of the core network, including Starfish, supports applications that need dependable access to the same information across borders. (blog.iota.org)

The question ahead is how widely those systems become part of regular business and public-service workflows. That depends on software integration, common standards, and participation from the organizations that handle trade each day. IOTA’s technology provides a way to share and verify records; its long-term role will be shaped by how those tools are used. (blog.iota.org)

Summary

IOTA has evolved from a network designed around connected devices into a programmable platform for digital assets and verifiable information. Its token supports fees and staking, while its Move mainnet and IOTA EVM give developers different ways to build. Work on digital trade gives IOTA a distinct place in the crypto ecosystem: connecting shared ledger technology with the documents, identities, and organizations involved in moving goods around the world. (iota.org)