Q3 2025 Progress Update

New releases. New integrations. Real-world traction.

Across R&D, adoption, and ecosystem growth, we’ve pushed IOTA closer to becoming the global infrastructure that brings the real world on-chain. Here’s a look at what we built, shipped, and scaled over the past quarter.

Research & Development

Q3 has been a productive quarter for our R&D department, with significant progress across multiple initiatives.

Starfish Consensus Mechanism: In Q3, we successfully deployed the non-sharded version of Starfish onto Devnet. This implementation alternates between Starfish and Mysticeti, enabling our team to gather comparative data and gain deeper insights into the distinct behavioral patterns and performance characteristics of each consensus mechanism.

The non-sharded implementation represents a critical foundation for achieving the complete version of Starfish. The key difference is that the non-sharded version broadcasts complete transaction data, while the complete version uses erasure coding to break data into encoded shards for more efficient dissemination. Our codebase is now substantially complete, with the primary remaining component being the decoding portion. This puts us in an excellent position as we look ahead to Q4, when we aim to bring the sharded version of Starfish to Devnet.

Even with the deployment of the complete version, our work on Starfish will be far from complete. Consensus mechanisms of this sophistication require continuous refinement, and we have a robust roadmap of subsequent improvements planned. Over the coming months, we'll iterate on the implementation, optimizing performance, and fine-tuning the mechanism based on empirical data and evolving network requirements.

IOTA Names: In Q3, the team released IOTA Names on Testnet, our first user-facing decentralized application. IOTA Names is a naming service that lets users register human-readable names like dom.iota instead of using lengthy hexadecimal addresses like 0x3d33f706cbd... This simplifies token transfers and identity representation on the network while minimizing the risk of errors.

The application comes with features like subdomains and an auction system for acquiring names. The Testnet version is currently available at https://testnet.iotanames.com/, and we’re evaluating the requirements for a Mainnet deployment.

Several key initiatives progressed substantially in Q3 and will continue into Q4 as we work toward completion:

Validator Reputation Score has been deployed on Mainnet, where each node currently tracks its own objective interpretation of scores for other validators. In Q4, the team will work on bringing the score through consensus so it becomes part of the system state. This will enable further use cases such as performance-based staking reward distributions.

Move View Functions has been developed to provide easier access to detailed data of on-chain objects and improve the developer experience. We plan to ship Move view functions to Testnet in Q4 with integrations into our SDKs.

Account Abstraction has seen multiple prototype implementations finalized in Q3. Account abstraction enables on-chain objects to function as accounts with dynamic authentication and authorization schemes, essential for building sophisticated applications like proper on-chain multi-signature solutions similar to Gnosis Safe. In Q4, the team plans to deploy the core version of Account abstraction onto Devnet to create an internal demo application that implements a full on-chain multi-sig solution.

SDK v2 will be maintained separately from the monorepo to enable faster compilation times. The new version will also provide bindings in Go, Kotlin/Java, and Python, as well as a WASM version, making IOTA development more accessible to a broader range of developers. We're looking forward to shipping a beta version of SDK v2 in Q4.

Product Adoption

The Product Adoption team continued its focus on turning IOTA’s public infrastructure into production-ready tools while supporting partners as they scale towards real-world deployment.

Following the onboarding of the first three participants earlier this year, three additional partners have now been accepted into the Business Innovation Program – we’ll introduce them in the coming weeks. 

On the product side, Q3 saw two significant releases:

IOTA Notarization was released in July, providing a lightweight and verifiable way to anchor documents, credentials, or events to the IOTA ledger. This tool enables builders to create immutable audit trails with minimal overhead, supporting use cases from regulatory compliance to supply chain transparency.

IOTA Hierarchies followed in August, introducing a mechanism to structure relationships between decentralized identities. With this release, organizations can formally represent federations, trust anchors, or membership networks on-chain, aligning IOTA more closely with governance and compliance needs.

Here’s a handy overview of our product releases and their resources:

Outreach also played a key role in Q3. The Product Adoption team engaged with builders and researchers at the TUM Blockchain Conference, highlighting IOTA’s progress and gathering feedback on real-world integration needs. Ecosystem partners such as Orobo and ObjectID expanded their visibility through industry events in Europe and Asia, underlining the growing recognition of IOTA-based solutions in sustainability and identity-focused domains.

TWIN and TLIP

Two major announcements were the highlights of Q3 for the Trade Worldwide Information Network (TWIN). It was adopted by Salus to tokenize trade documents and anchor audit trails on the IOTA ledger, bringing trust and automation to mineral supply chains. GLEIF signed an MoU with IOTA to link its global Legal Entity Identifier system to TWIN’s on-chain infrastructure, simplifying cross-border authentication and compliance.

On the infrastructure side, TWIN completed the first version of the decentralized storage component, enabling synchronized copies of federated catalogues and registries across TWIN Nodes. Work also advanced on data rights management, with an analysis of the W3C ODRL framework and an initial implementation of key interfaces such as Policy Administration Point and Policy Decision Point. In parallel, an initial proof of concept of the TWIN Data Space Connector was completed, along with the first tests using custom TWIN DS Connector Apps, marking a significant step toward secure, modular data exchange across TWIN-enabled networks – while respecting everyone’s data sovereignty.

These topics and TWIN use cases, such as Digital Product Passports and ​three-party document sharing, were covered in the most recent TWIN Technical Webinar, part of our open-source commitment.

Meanwhile, the Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP) was integrated with the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) this quarter. This integration aims to facilitate seamless data sharing of port information and enhance transparency of the movement of containers and cargo within the port. The integration includes API connectivity with Kilindini Waterfront Automated Terminal Operating System, secure import and export status transmissions, and payment notifications. Detailed export statuses transmitted to TLIP include “pre-advice”, “incoming”, and “stacked to delivered”; Import processes for cargo/containers, such as manifest approvals, customs declarations, delivery orders, payments, and pickups, are tracked via statuses such as “BAPLIE received”, “incoming”, and “stacked to delivered”. The status will be presented as events in TLIP, ensuring real-time visibility on the movement of containers/cargo from the port to the destination and from the exporter to the port.

Ecosystem Department

It’s been a packed quarter for the Ecosystem team, not least because of IOTA’s birthday celebrations. 

A central focus for the Ecosystem team in Q3 was preparing and executing IOTA’s 10th anniversary celebrations, held on October 2nd during Token2049 in Singapore. The milestone was marked through a series of curated side events, networking sessions, and ecosystem gatherings that brought together long-standing contributors, new partners, and institutional stakeholders. These events reflected not only on IOTA’s evolution over the past decade but also served to highlight its growing relevance and maturity in the Web3 landscape.

Beyond Token2049, the team continued its expansion across Southeast Asia. IOTA was the Title Sponsor of Malaysia Blockchain Week, where Foundation members delivered keynote talks, participated in panel discussions, and hosted a dedicated hackathon for 50 students from local universities. This was complemented by a roadshow across five Malaysian universities, where team members introduced IOTA’s technology and vision to a new generation of builders.

In Indonesia, IOTA joined Coinfest Bali, https://coinfest.asia/hosting a booth and speaking on a panel alongside local institutions and regulators. The team also hosted a community Pickleball Tournament during Korean Blockchain Week, blending informal engagement with ecosystem visibility. IOTA further strengthened institutional outreach by showcasing at the Luno Institutional Asset Conference in Malaysia.

Infrastructure and DeFi Initiatives 

Q3 also saw important technical and ecosystem milestones. Switchboard Oracles went live on IOTA Layer 1, providing decentralized data feeds to support smart contract development. In parallel, the validator committee expanded from 50 to 80 available seats, with 67 active validators by the end of the quarter, contributing to greater decentralization and security.

To support observability and developer tooling, the team also began integrating Sentio, a blockchain analytics and monitoring platform that will help ecosystem contributors better track performance, debug applications, and gather on-chain insights.

Beyond Ledger hardware wallets, both the IOTA Wallet and Nightly wallet added support in Q3 for the open-source, air-gapped hardware wallet Keystone.

On the DeFi side, Houdini Swap has made cross-chain access to IOTA more convenient while also offering private swap options. Virtue Money also launched in Q3, enabling IOTA and stIOTA holders to mint the VUS stablecoin. In addition, Virtue has partnered with the Echo protocol, allowing native BTC bridged into IOTA to be also used as collateral for VUSD.

Campaigns and Growth

The LiquidLink-powered points campaign was launched this quarter, with Swirl’s stIOTA token introduced as the first eligible asset. Participants who hold stIOTA in their wallets or utilize it as collateral on Virtue accumulate points and progress on the campaign leaderboard. This initiative rewards active protocol participants, establishing a framework for future token distributions across integrated protocols. Swirl’s integration represents the first step in a broader rollout, with additional dApps scheduled for inclusion in upcoming phases.

Additionally, GiveRep was deployed on the IOTA network, providing on-chain reputation infrastructure for ecosystem applications. The protocol enables developers to integrate trust and engagement metrics directly into their products through features such as leaderboards and loyalty programs. By bringing reputation data on-chain, GiveRep contributes to a more transparent, merit-based ecosystem where users are rewarded for authentic participation and community impact.

Legal & Regulatory Affairs

The Legal & Regulatory Affairs team continued its proactive global engagement, especially in Asia, North America, and Europe. It also reached a significant milestone this quarter when the IOTA token on the rebased IOTA network received a Sharia compliance certificate, an important step in expanding IOTA’s reach into Islamic finance markets.

In Asia, the team engaged with several regulators to provide our industry perspective and expertise as a step to support the growing builder community across the continent. 

• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority was provided with recommendations for its proposed AML/CFT Requirements for Regulated Stablecoin Activities.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand received feedback on the revision of the criteria for selecting digital assets for trading on digital asset exchanges.
• We gave feedback to the Securities Commission of Malaysia on proposed updates to the framework for Digital Asset Exchanges and the Liberalised Listing Framework.
• We responded to an amendment of the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on Promotion of Venture Businesses by the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

We’ll be recapping these engagements in an upcoming blog post.

In the U.S., a burst of regulatory initiatives has played an important role for the industry as a whole. This quarter, the Legal & Regulatory Affairs team provided comments and recommendations to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Check out this blog post for a summary. 

In Europe, the team worked with the Global Blockchain Business Council to provide comments to the UK Law Commission on the treatment of digital assets and electronic trade documents in private international law. It also delivered a presentation on the future of crypto regulation at the International Conference on Contemporary and Future Challenges of Blockchain, hosted by the University of Malta’s Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies. The team also participated in the Nordic Blockchain Conference to discuss the implementation of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation and its impact on the European crypto market. 

Communications and Social Media

This quarter, we garnered 3.65 million organic impressions and 26 million impressions on X (via advertising from Tangle Ecosystem Association) through the release of nine blog posts. Most of these posts were focused on product development, supply chains, and trade. On social media, this translated to nearly 700 posts (an expected reduction of 30% over the previous quarter due to reduced seasonal activity). A novelty this quarter is advertising on LinkedIn, the results of which will be shared in the next update. 

Despite reduced visibility, engagement (a marker of quality) remained very high at 140K, translating to an exceptional rate of 3.88% (previous quarter was 2.45%), which, according to our knowledge, is way above the industry standard. Followers remained stable with +1400 joining IOTA across all platforms.  

Outlook

With the technology in place, the IOTA Foundation has focused on making access to it easier. Initiatives such as the release of the aforementioned IOTA Gas Station, IOTA Identity, IOTA Notarization, and IOTA Hierarchies, and the efforts of the Product Adoption team’s Business Innovation Program, are bearing fruit. The same applies to affiliated external parties such as TLIP, TWIN, or Salus, who continue to expand their foothold in their respective areas. 

In the coming quarter, we’ll continue to refine and simplify the available libraries, resources, documentation, learning material, and overall developer relations, and increase communication efforts around the Foundations’ focus on trade and supply chains.

Stay up to date with our teams and working groups by joining our Community Discord or following us on X.