Blockchain analytics platform Nansen has highlighted IOTA’s second-quarter progress, describing the period as a turning point where the network advanced from a long-term trade infrastructure vision toward production-ready technology, enterprise integrations, and country-level implementations. The report points to major protocol upgrades, enterprise tooling, and expanding digital trade initiatives as key milestones achieved during the quarter.
According to the report, IOTA’s strategy continues to focus on connecting real-world trade, digital identity, supply chains, and tokenized assets through scalable public infrastructure rather than competing in speculative cryptocurrency sectors.
Starfish Upgrade Improves Performance and Enterprise Readiness
One of the quarter’s most significant developments was the launch of the Starfish consensus mechanism on the IOTA mainnet, replacing the previous Mysticeti engine. Nansen noted that the new consensus architecture was designed to improve network resilience while maintaining performance across environments with uneven validator connectivity.
Performance improvements included a reduction in 99th percentile commit latency from 486 milliseconds to 312 milliseconds, alongside a roughly tenfold reduction in outbound request rates. The report also noted that Starfish introduces architectural improvements intended to support global trade systems that require continuous availability across multiple jurisdictions.
Beyond consensus, IOTA introduced Protocol Version 29, deployed Account Abstraction capabilities, rebuilt its software development kit to support multiple enterprise programming languages, added real-time onchain data streaming, and reduced active node storage requirements during testing by approximately one-third. According to Nansen, these improvements lower integration complexity while making the network more attractive for enterprise deployments.
ADAPT Initiative and Enterprise Adoption Expand
Nansen also highlighted continued progress in IOTA’s trade infrastructure strategy through the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) initiative. During the second quarter, Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco were selected as the first countries to implement the program, which focuses on digital identity, cross-border data exchange, and interoperable payment infrastructure to support trade across the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The report also pointed to broader enterprise adoption through partnerships such as Orobo, which uses IOTA infrastructure to support Digital Product Passports across international supply chains. Meanwhile, the IOTA Audit Trails toolkit entered alpha release, providing businesses with verifiable record management while keeping sensitive information off-chain.
Related: IOTA Goes Live in Argentina’s National Healthcare System With Verifiable Digital Identities
Developer activity also expanded during the quarter. The MasterZ European Blockchain Hackathon attracted approximately 200 developers who built 66 applications focused largely on supply chain management, compliance, digital identity, and document verification, reinforcing IOTA’s emphasis on enterprise and real-world use cases rather than speculative decentralized finance.
Looking ahead, Nansen said the coming quarters will determine whether these technology upgrades, institutional partnerships, and government-backed initiatives translate into large-scale production deployments. The report concludes that IOTA’s strategy remains centered on becoming foundational infrastructure for global trade, with future adoption expected to depend on the successful rollout of ADAPT, maritime trade systems, Digital Product Passports, and enterprise applications already under development.
Related: IOTA Upgrades to Pyth Pro for 3,000+ Institutional Price Feeds to Developers
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