Pressroom
May 19, 2026
Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria lead the way on Intra-African digital trade
Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria will be the first countries to implement a landmark digital trade solution and accelerate intra-African commerce under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
February 4, 2026
New UK partnership brings TWIN digital trade solution live
Collaboration expands government pilots to deliver real-world digital border transformation
November 17, 2025
AfCFTA launches landmark initiative to create world’s most advanced digital public infrastructure for trade
The African trade overhaul, which is backed by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, World Economic Forum, and IOTA Foundation, targets $23.6 billion in annual efficiency gains and easy access to trade finance across the continent
April 22, 2025
IOTA major mainnet upgrade imminent, unlocks new growth and token utility
The IOTA Rebased protocol upgrade provides the IOTA mainnet with full decentralization, L1 programmability with MoveVM and EVM support, 50k+ TPS scalability, and $IOTA staking
November 18, 2024
IOTA upgrades its L1 to Move, accelerating its efforts on real-world adoption
The proposed upgrade of the IOTA network will accelerate real-world adoption efforts and bring more use cases, applications, and token utility to IOTA, including staking for the native $IOTA token
August 6, 2024
IOTA receives Shari’a certificate and sets a precedent for ethical finance
IOTA adheres to Islamic principles and legal requirements, with a Shari’a Governance Framework and annual compliance checks fostering trust and growth in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and globally
July 11, 2024
The IOTA Foundation and Eviden announce Eviden Digital Passport Solution, powered by IOTA
The new offering is one of the first ready-to-use DLT-based Digital Passport solutions on the market and uses IOTA technology to track the life cycle, carbon footprint, and sustainability of automotive batteries.
July 3, 2024
Imperial College London launches I3-Lab, a circular economy research facility backed by £1M from the IOTA Foundation
The facility will advance bias-free AI algorithms, circularity in industrial robots and electric vehicles, battery product passports, predictive analytic tools to detect pollution off-shoring, and more.
April 9, 2024
IOTA APAC Accelerator program kicks off in Singapore, pushing real-world asset tokenization products and infrastructure forward
The 12-week program, developed in partnership with Tenity, will act as a launchpad for startups building products and services for real-world asset tokenization, DeFi, and institutional DeFi services, payments, and infrastructure
February 27, 2024
IOTA joins forces with the World Economic Forum, the Tony Blair Institute, Trademark Africa, and other partners to reimagine international trade
Together these organizations commit to advancing a global digital infrastructure for trade facilitation and a supporting governance framework that allows governments and industry to join and participate in shaping its future
November 29, 2023
IOTA becomes the first DLT Foundation registered with ADGM in Abu Dhabi
IOTA further cements its position as a leader in digitizing global economies with its new foundation advancing the bridge between digital innovation and real-world applications
September 28, 2023
The launch of ShimmerEVM kick-starts smart contracts in the IOTA ecosystem
The ShimmerEVM chain is the first in a multi-chain environment to allow horizontally scalable, fast, secure, and parallel processing of smart contracts as well as bridgeless L2 cross-chain value transfers
June 27, 2023
SwissOne launches first fund to support the Shimmer and IOTA ecosystems
SwissOne IOTA Shimmer Opportunities Fund (“SISO”) is a new fund from SwissOne Capital dedicated to projects building on Shimmer and IOTA in order to support the growing ecosystems
May 2023
IOTA to boost ShimmerEVM testing with 1.8M token airdrop
The two-week long incentive campaign, Treasures of Shimmer, will reward dApps and their users in $SMR tokens for testing on the ShimmerEVM test chain
March 29, 2023
IOTA inches closer to a full DeFi ecosystem with the ShimmerEVM test chain launch
The IOTA Foundation releases its public test chain to improve its resilience, performance, and security ahead of the awaited ShimmerEVM launch
June 13, 2022
IOTA community passes DAO vote to expand community governance
A community-wide vote approved the reallocation of the unclaimed tokens in IOTA’s ledger to a DAO in support of community-led initiatives benefiting the ecosystem
February 3, 2022
The IOTA Foundation awards Imperial College London £1 million philanthropic grant for circular economy research
The grant will support the founding of the I3-LAB within the Dyson School of Design Engineering to foster collaboration between policy makers, entrepreneurs, and researchers
December 10, 2021
LD Capital, Huobi Ventures, UOB Venture Management and others commit $100 million to accelerate Assembly ecosystem
Multiple prominent crypto funds throw their support behind the recently launched ecosystem with this contribution
December 2, 2021
Assembly announces sharded, composable smart contracts with optional zero fees to take Web3 and the Metaverse mainstream
The team behind IOTA announces Assembly, a new decentralized layer-1 network for smart contracts with a native ASMB token and with the possibility of zero fees, sharding, and support for multiple virtual machines, including EVM
November 22, 2021
IOTA debuts Genesis NFTs on newly-launched Shimmer network to reward early adopters
November 16, 2021
IOTA introduces staking rewards with the launch of its incentivized staging network Shimmer
Shimmer and its native token $SMR will offer builders and users exciting possibilities for new decentralized applications, NFTs, and DeFi. Shimmer tokens can be earned by staking IOTA tokens. Stake. Earn. Govern. Build.
October 21, 2021
IOTA Smart Contracts Beta launches with zero fees, interoperability, and EVM compatibility
The IOTA Foundation debuts its next-generation Smart Contracts solution that focuses on interoperability, flexibility, and accessibility, and is ready for testing
September 2021
IOTA set to enable European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI)
The IOTA Foundation’s distributed ledger technology is competing to enable fully digitized cross-border e-government services for citizens and enterprises in Europe
July 6, 2021
IOTA Foundation enables paperless trade in East Africa in partnership with Trademark East Africa
IOTA Foundation and Trademark East Africa develop digital infrastructure to improve supply chain transparency and trust among trading partners in Kenya and beyond
June 2, 2021
IOTA 2.0 DevNet goes live to achieve full decentralization
The IOTA 2.0 Development Network “Nectar” becomes the first fully decentralized, feeless data and value protocol prototype, an update that opens up immense possibilities for the new digital economy
April 28, 2021
IOTA is enterprise-ready, as Chrysalis Phase 2 launches on mainnet
Chrysalis upgrade launches on April 28th, moving IOTA from experimental project environment to enterprise-ready distributed ledger ecosystem
October 27, 2020
IOTA joins project funded by Japanese national R&D agency NEDO to build first-ever AI and DLT-based predictive maintenance system
Collaboration protects critical infrastructure In Japan and abroad
September 20, 2020
IOTA Access brings open-source, conditional access control to any application or platform
IOTA Access is a DLT-based open-source framework for granting or revoking conditional access to physical devices in a remote, permission-less, and auditable manner
August 19, 2020
IOTA releases first phase of IOTA 1.5 upgrade “Chrysalis”
With massive performance improvements, users can now send and receive IOTA tokens in 10 seconds
July 2020
IOTA's project Selv aims to fix privacy issues with digital healthcare data
Developed in collaboration with Dentons, one of the world’s largest law firms; Selv is a GDPR-compliant healthcare data management application that allows users to have complete control over their health data and privacy and an easy means of sharing personal details with those authorized to see it
June 30, 2020
IOTA unveils first testnet of fully decentralized network with Pollen release
New implementation of the IOTA protocol aims to solve blockchain’s biggest issues with scalability and decentralization
June 5, 2020
IOTA announces first component of IOTA 1.5 with Hornet node release
Release of Hornet node software marks the first of several upgrades to the performance and UX of the IOTA Network
About IOTA
IOTA is a blockchain infrastructure for global economies where data, assets, and identity interact freely and securely. It enables anyone to exchange value directly without permission, gatekeepers, or friction, unlocking a new era of scalable, people-owned growth. With smart contracts and a modular architecture, the IOTA mainnet provides a global, permissionless foundation for diverse applications and a streamlined pathway to market adoption.
Backed by a proven track record in industry and public sector collaborations, IOTA is applied to global trade and supply chain management, digital identity, energy systems, and more. It also empowers developers to build decentralized applications, DeFi projects, and custom blockchain-based solutions.
Founded in 2015, IOTA is one of the most established blockchain projects globally and is led by the non-profit IOTA Foundation, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Supporting its mission are the Swiss-based Tangle Ecosystem Association and the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation, the first DLT foundation registered under the Abu Dhabi Global Market.
Leadership
Dominik Schiener - Co-Founder and Chair of the IOTA Foundation
Dominik Schiener is a technology entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder and Chair of the IOTA Foundation, a non-profit foundation based in Germany, Switzerland, and the UAE. As Chairman, he leads and oversees the efforts to expand IOTA’s digital infrastructure to create new digital economies for trade and logistics, digital finance, and digital identity. He has been a technology entrepreneur for over a decade, with his core expertise including Blockchain, AI, IoT, digital finance, startups and the creation of digital ecosystems.
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