LIVE MARKETS-IOTA accelerates push into $35 trillion global trade market in 2026

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IOTA ACCELERATES PUSH INTO $35 TRILLION GLOBAL TRADE MARKET

Blockchain network IOTA is stepping up efforts to push further into the $35 trillion global trade market, an industry it says remains one of the biggest holdouts to digital transformation. The plan is detailed in a new report from co-founder and chairman Dominik Schiener.

Schiener argues that despite its central role in the global economy, the trade sector continues to rely heavily on outdated processes.

"Global trade is the lifeblood of the world economy and involves every country, millions of companies, and billions of end consumers," he writes. "Yet it remains stuck in the past, as the systems, technologies, and processes underpinning our flow of goods are often shockingly antiquated and archaic."

According to the report, inefficiencies within global trade remain widespread. Roughly four billion trade documents circulate worldwide at any given moment, with a standard shipment requiring coordination among as many as 30 parties and the exchange of dozens of documents—plus hundreds of copies, the IOTA report said.

These inefficiencies come at a cost. IOTA estimates that the overhead associated with cross-border trade can reach 20%, much of it tied to paperwork, redundant procedures, manual data entry, and delays from missing or inaccurate documentation.

Fraud is another glaring issue, the IOTA report says. Banks and traders lose an estimated $2 billion to $5 billion annually to forged or duplicated trade documents such as invoices and bills of lading. Beyond direct losses, the report notes that paper-based workflows enable large-scale trade-based money laundering and the movement of counterfeit goods across global supply chains.

A further structural challenge is the $2.5 trillion trade-finance gap, Schiener notes. Many importers and exporters rely on short-term financing to bridge payment cycles that can stretch up to 90 days after cargo arrives. But banks and other financial institutions often decline to provide funding, leaving reputable traders to face steep financing costs—or no access to credit at all.

Schiener argues that even modest improvements in efficiency could generate significant economic benefits. A 5% gain, he says, would unlock "hundreds of billions of dollars" in value for companies and economies worldwide.

"Trade in 2026 should not be reliant upon pieces of paper being shipped around the world to clear customs, export goods, or provide financing," Schiener writes.

He adds that IOTA so far has been increasingly active in the trade sector over the past several years, developing tools and partnerships aimed at digitizing core processes.

(Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss)

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