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- IOTA-backed open infrastructure aims to cut trade costs by 25% while keeping data in local hands.
- Trade still relies on centuries-old paper systems, with 4 billion documents circulating daily worldwide.
A recent report highlighted by IOTA and written by Four Pillars FP describes how trade now underpins global economic activity. According to the report, the ratio of trade in goods and services to world GDP has climbed from low double digits after World War II to 56% in 2024.
Despite modern logistics systems, many transaction stages still rely on paper records. McKinsey research notes continued dependence on bills of lading, first used in the fifteenth century for maritime shipping. The firm warned three years ago about the cost and delays caused by manual paperwork, the same issues are still being reported.
A report referencing a June 2025 survey estimated that approximately 4 billion trade documents are in circulation each day across the globe. One cross-border shipment can involve up to 30 parties, with 36 original documents and 240 copies exchanged.
Research from the OECD and McKinsey indicates that digitizing bills of lading could save $6.5 billion a year and support between $30 and $40 billion in additional trade.
Dive into an incredibly thorough and detailed report on IOTA's trade focus, and how it could truly impact the world. Thank you @FourPillarsFP for this excellent article! https://t.co/fxtTBKUsoL
— IOTA (@iota) November 27, 2025
Neutral Infrastructure for Trade Data
According to the report, the Legal reform has prepared the ground for electronic trade records. Since the United Nations adopted the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records in 2017, many countries gave electronic documents the same legal status as paper documents. This created a legal basis for putting trade finance documents into digital form and even for their tokenization.
In 2018, IBM and Maersk developed TradeLens for the digitalization of maritime logistics, which was later closed at the end of the first quarter of 2023. Competitors avoided placing sensitive operational data into a system that was linked to a major industry player. This shows that lack of trust and disagreements over governance can become obstacles to shared trade infrastructure.
IOTA responds with public infrastructure under no single firm’s control. The network began in 2015, went live in 2016, added smart contract support through a second layer in 2021, and adopted the Rebased architecture in 2025.
The IOTA Trust Framework combines tokenization, digital identity, governance modelling, document notarization, and sponsored transaction fees in an open source, fee-free structure anchored to the mainnet.
IOTA Tokenization Projects and African Trade
In May 2025, the IOTA Foundation and partners, including the World Economic Forum and the Tony Blair Institute, launched the Trade Worldwide Information Network Foundation. TWIN is designed as an open infrastructure rather than a closed platform, enabling secure, real-time sharing of trade data with a stated goal of reducing global trade costs by 25%.
Within the IOTA’s TWIN architecture, organizations operate nodes connecting existing information systems to a shared trust framework. Data stays on local servers while nodes store digital fingerprints for integrity checks.
Trust in corporate identity receives extra support from cooperation with the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. On 16 September 2025, IOTA signed a memorandum of understanding with GLEIF to link verifiable LEI credentials with IOTA Identity and TWIN nodes.
IOTA has also taken tokenized trade infrastructure into a continent-scale programme in Africa. On 17 November 2025, the foundation and partners announced ADAPT, led by the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat
The report highlighted that If just one percent of global consignments used IOTA’s system, transaction volumes could reach hundreds of millions annually. The model’s design also includes a fee-burning mechanism that could strengthen the economic layer of IOTA’s system over time. Its scale, transparency, and neutrality place it in direct contrast to centralized or vendor-led projects.
At present, the IOTA token is trading at $0.099, reflecting an 11.55% drop over the past 24 hours. However, trading volume has risen by 92.73%, reaching $21.07 million, which shows strong market activity despite the price decline.
