IOTA is a network designed for fast, low-cost transactions and digital asset activity. Originally built around a feeless, IoT-focused data structure called “the Tangle”. The network underwent a major protocol upgrade in 2025 that moved IOTA to an object-based Layer 1 architecture supporting smart contracts.
IOTA now uses a Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus model, where a decentralized set of validators — elected through community staking — confirm transactions, rather than miners. The network supports smart contracts through the Move programming language, alongside EVM compatibility. This allows developers to build decentralized applications and tokenized assets on IOTA.
Transactions on IOTA typically cost around 0.005 IOTA, based on the network’s reference gas price, with a portion of that fee burned rather than paid out. A portion of each transaction fee is burned rather than redistributed, while new tokens are issued as staking rewards. Storing data on-chain also requires a storage deposit, which the protocol returns when that data is deleted.