IOTA Focuses on Government and Institutional Adoption in 2026 Strategy

• IOTA’s CMO has reiterated that 2026 is the year the network moves from crypto speculation to real-world infrastructure. 
• Its TWIN system is operational in Kenya and has been involved in freight trials in the United Kingdom, with plans for a wider rollout.

IOTA’s 2026 strategy focuses on government and institutional use, particularly targeting trade infrastructure, CMO Karen O’Brien has reiterated. In the network’s manifesto, co-founder Dominik Schiener said it’s targeting global trade, digital identity, trade finance, and supply chain data as core areas for growth.

The strategy places IOTA and its Trade Worldwide Information Network, TWIN, at the center of cross-border trade digitization. O’Brien stated that the project is shifting its message from speculation to real-world infrastructure. She added that the focus for 2026 includes global trade and supply chains, verifiable data, government adoption, institutional use, and live deployments.

International trade is projected to exceed $35 trillion in 2025, but it still depends on paper documentation, manual checks and disjointed systems. Notably, up to 4 billion trade documents are in circulation on any given day, while cross-border trade costs can rise because of delays and repeated checks.

IOTA’s approach is grounded on the digitization of trade documents, tokenization of assets, and linking trade information across international boundaries with a neutral public network. TWIN supports verifiable credentials, shipment tracking, and document exchange with audit trails on the public network.

At the World Crypto Forum in South Korea, Schiener presented TWIN as a tool for faster trade financing. CNF reported that TWIN has also been implemented in pilot programs in Kenya and Rwanda.

Recently, Schiener was also featured in a leading Korean business newspaper discussing blockchain-based trade infrastructure and digital trade modernization.

IOTA’s TWIN Targets Trade Systems in Africa and Europe

In Kenya, TWIN is connected to the country’s trade system and is expanding beyond flower exports to cover a wider range of commodities. In the United Kingdom, it has been used in freight trials involving poultry consignments moving from Poland to the UK. More countries are expected to begin pilots over the next 12 months across Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America.

Another major part of the roadmap is the ADAPT initiative, which is led by the AfCFTA Secretariat in partnership with IOTA, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and the World Economic Forum. ADAPT aims to modernize trade systems across Africa by connecting identity, data, and finance through shared digital infrastructure. It seeks to reduce border clearance times and lower cross-border payment costs.

Beyond trade data, IOTA’s 2026 strategy also targets tokenization and digital identity tools. The manifesto lists Tokenization, Identity, Hierarchies, Notarization, and Gas Station as products built for enterprise use. These tools will support customs workflows, supplier verification, digital product passports, trade receivables, and asset-backed finance.

The IOTA manifesto states that digitizing 1% of the roughly 2.5 billion consignments shipped across borders each year could generate about 650 million mainnet transactions annually. 

Previously, we reported how the IOTA Trust Framework entered the digital product passport market through Orobo’s deployment on the IOTA Rebased mainnet.