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• IOTA integrates LayerZero and Stargate into the mainnet and expands the cross-chain connection to 150+ networks.
• Schiener looks back on a difficult 2025 and sees IOTA “in the best position” for the next steps at the start of 2026.

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IOTA has integrated the Omnichain protocols LayerZero and Stargate into its mainnet, expanding cross-chain connectivity to more than 150 networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Base and BNB Smart Chain. According to a January 3 blog post from the IOTA Foundation, the move is significant because it will improve interoperability and data communication while enabling stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization on the mainnet.

What the collaboration brings to IOTA

In dem Blogpost The IOTA Foundation describes LayerZero as a messaging protocol that forms the technical basis for Stargate. Stargate is classified as an “immutable, permissionless and censorship-resistant liquidity protocol” between networks and uses LayerZero as its backbone. Central to this is the Omnichain Fungible Token Standard (OFT), which enables transfers across multiple chains.

According to the blog post, the LayerZero protocol also brings connectivity to more than 150 networks and boasts an annual asset transfer volume of “over $120 billion.” According to the IOTA Foundation, this creates the prerequisites for embedding IOTA-based assets and data flows into other established ecosystems.

Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chair of the IOTA Foundation, calls the integration a major milestone:

“LayerZero’s integration into the IOTA mainnet represents a transformative milestone for the IOTA ecosystem, laying a strong foundation that accelerates mainstream adoption and advances key industries. By enabling seamless digital asset flows and the tokenization of real-world assets, LayerZero positions IOTA as a critical backbone to facilitate global trade and revolutionize supply chain finance worldwide.”

The blog post explicitly mentions Europe, Africa and other emerging markets where IOTA wants to strengthen its infrastructure. LayerZero Labs CEO Brian Pellegrino also praises the collaboration:

“The goal is to provide the world with global permissionless markets – starting with connecting every blockchain. LayerZero unifies the IOTA mainnet with the rest of crypto, allowing engineers to focus on building seamless, secure multichain applications that shape the evolution of Web3 adoption.”

Technically, IOTA follows on from earlier integration steps. The blog post points out that LayerZero and Stargate already provided support for the IOTA EVM in September 2024. The new mainnet integration expands this framework: it is intended to enable asset transfers, messaging and cross-chain connectivity between Ethereum, Solana, IOTA EVM and “numerous additional networks”.

IOTA describes this as crucial to connecting decentralized digital economies with the real economy, particularly in the trading and supply chain industries.

Of central importance is the OFT standard: This maintains a “single, consistent token supply” across all connected networks. In addition, OFT assets should be transferable between LayerZero-supported networks via the Stargate WebApp.

With a view to activity on the mainnet, the IOTA Foundation announces that “several new assets” will become available on-chain following the integration. First, the blog post mentions CYB, the native utility token of the Cyberperp Perpetual Exchange, which operates on IOTA EVM and the IOTA L1 mainnet. At the same time, IOTA promises “seamless bridging” of several IOTA-specific assets and emphasizes that the partnership also supports the interoperability of “numerous large blue-chip assets”.

Particularly interesting is the statement that a “leading stablecoin” is currently undergoing a formal verification check and should “natively” join the IOTA mainnet ecosystem shortly. However, the IOTA Foundation has not yet revealed which stablecoin it is.

In the coming weeks, additional assets will become “interchangeable” via LayerZero as developers implement additional integrations.

Schiener looks ahead

At the start of 2026, Schiener supplemented the technical step with a look back at 2025. Via X writes he on January 4th:

“As I look back over the last twelve months, there is a lot to be really proud of. We have taken IOTA to new levels and transformed it by leaving our past behind us. We have brought many new partners on board and brought real adoption to the mainnet.”

Schiener also gave hope for better times with a view to the IOTA token and its price:

“There is no doubt that 2025 has been incredibly challenging, especially when you look at the markets over the last few months. While I can’t predict the price, all I know right now and what matters to me is that we made the right decisions, have the right team and the right strategy – and that we are in the best position we have ever been to deliver on our mission.”

• 2025 was a turning point for the crypto industry – especially because of the structural reorganization that is not only taking place in Europe.
• The global crypto market has changed permanently. Bitcoin and Ethereum finally became a top priority for the institutions.

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With a market capitalization of over two trillion dollars, Bitcoin finally became a global economic factor, and Ethereum ensured that RWA tokenization was able to establish itself in almost all industries worldwide.

However, the price development was less important than the type of capital that flowed into the market: pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds and global asset managers appeared as buyers on a large scale for the first time.

This helped to professionalize market structures through regulated ETFs, stricter custody standards and, last but not least, by distinguishing between regulated and unregulated market segments.

Stablecoins and tokenization as growth engines

2025 was also the year in which stablecoins left their role as pure trading currencies behind. With new regulatory frameworks in the US and EU, they have become practical tools for payments, cash management and international transactions.

Net inflows reached record levels as banks and FinTechs began developing their own stablecoins. At the same time, RWA tokenization accelerated. Institutional investors discovered tokenized money market funds, loans and infrastructure projects as efficient, programmable forms of investment.

Demand for onchain financial products grew so much that several major asset managers are now offering their own tokenization services. This shifted the focus from speculation-heavy adventures to real cash flows, serious collateral and regulatory compliance.

What investors can expect in 2026

Clear trends for 2026 can be derived from the movements of 2025:

First, institutional dominance will continue to increase. This means less extreme volatility, but also less room for irrational exaggerations. Bitcoin and Ethereum are increasingly being treated like strategic allocations, not short-term trades.

Second, the number of ETFs will continue to grow. Investors who want to invest in it have to be more concerned with product structures, replication methods and regulatory differences, as these factors sometimes have a greater impact on performance than the choice of coin itself.

Third, stablecoins and tokenized assets are becoming key growth engines.

Projects that provide infrastructure for onchain payments, compliance and institutional tokenization will be among the winners. At the same time, the importance of regulation is increasing: the consequences for anyone who believes they do not have to comply with it are becoming harsher.

2026 will be a year in which regulated assets and “gray area crypto” finally diverge. For investors, this means that due diligence, issuer quality and legal certainty are becoming more important than ever before.

• At the turn of the year, the stream of new political announcements ended. The Volksbanks in the DACH region are now activating their new crypto functions.
• The first customers are gaining access to Bitcoin trading and savings plans, while the institutions are “arming” their reporting processes to the Federal Central Tax Office.

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The industry is talking about a “soft rollout” that will last several weeks. Technical bottlenecks and increased support loads are already visible, but were expected.

Data transmission begins

The operational implementation of the Crypto Transparency Act begins in Germany: banks, brokers and custodians are transmitting structured inventory and transaction data to the Federal Central Tax Office in Bonn for the first time.

Austria and Switzerland have also initiated the transition into practice. The first DAC8 information letters are being sent to investors, and CARF-compatible data structures are being tested in Switzerland. For the first time, crypto derivatives are also included in the new exchange formats.

While retail processes are getting underway, international players are providing strong impetus: Tether confirms a further increase in its Bitcoin reserves, which is being followed closely in the institutional environment in the DACH region.

At the same time, security analyzes warn of persistently high risks in the Web3 sector. For companies with crosschain activities, the pressure to tighten audits and monitoring is increasing.

The combination of new regulation and institutional dynamics marks the beginning of a year that will be more than ever characterized by transparency, compliance and structured on-chain processes.

Additional tax revenue in Germany

According to KPMG, the new transparency results in significant new tax potential. It is assumed that private crypto profits were partly not declared at all and partly declared incorrectly. Staking and lending income was often not treated as taxable.

In addition, stablecoin transactions are systematically recorded for the first time through MiCAR and DAC8. Conservative estimates from the industry assume a mid-three-digit million amount per year, which will also flow into the coffers of the tax offices – €300 to €600 million per year.

• A number of crypto media outlets are now spreading the claim that Venezuela has built up a crypto reserve of up to 660,000 Bitcoin under the Maduro regime.
• That would correspond to up to 67 billion dollars. The reports cite analysts who supposedly have access to intelligence information.

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What is striking, however, is that no renowned business editorial team – neither Reuters nor Bloomberg, not the Financial Times and not the Wall Street Journal – pick up on or even confirm this figure. International institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank do not report any corresponding data. The report is therefore pure speculation.

How the alleged mega-reserve was supposed to have come about

The reports consistently describe the scenario that Venezuela has been systematically converting traditional assets into cryptocurrencies that are difficult to sanction since 2018.

There are said to have been gold sales worth around two billion dollars between 2018 and 2020, and Bitcoins were then bought at the comparatively low prices at the time.
In addition, there have been oil exports since 2023 for which the state oil company PDVSA has accepted payments in Bitcoin.

And finally, the Maduro regime is said to have expropriated entire mining farms and collected their Bitcoin holdings and subsequent profits.

All of this is possible and could have led to the rumored total of more than 600,000 Bitcoin. But as is the case with rumors: Everything is possible, nothing has been proven and in this case certainly not by publicly verifiable onchain data.

Unproven claims

The reports emerged after Maduro’s arrest by the US military. In fact, a Bitcoin reserve of this size would make Venezuela one of the largest Bitcoin investors in the world, in the league of Strategy.

This speaks for:

Venezuela has been subject to massive US sanctions for years due to corruption and drug trafficking, particularly affecting the financial system and individuals in Maduro’s power circle. It is plausible that Bitcoin has been used as a tool to evade sanctions.
There is also evidence that Venezuela had close economic ties with China and Russia. In this environment, non-transparent payment channels to avoid US sanctions are not unreasonable.

Against this speaks:

Neither the IMF, the World Bank and the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal nor Bloomberg and Reuters report anything about alleged Venezuelan Bitcoins.

What is certain, however, is that Venezuela has around $60 billion in foreign debt and has been on the verge of national bankruptcy several times. A nice Bitcoin reserve of the same amount would come in handy. But that doesn’t make it any more plausible.

• Bitcoin reclaimed $92,000 and rose to $93,388.
• The main reason for the price rally is short liquidations and the geopolitical escalation in Venezuela.

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Bitcoin reclaimed the $92,000 mark again over the weekend. After BTC hit a low of $88,379 on Friday, the price rose to an intraday high of $93,388 on Monday.

The trigger for the price rally of around $5,000 (+5.7%) appears to be the geopolitical escalation surrounding Venezuela, which has indirectly boosted the Bitcoin price through energy prices and inflation narratives.

Why has the Bitcoin price risen?

In addition, The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) the movement explicitly with short liquidations:

“Bitcoin shoots toward $93,000 after liquidating $75 million worth of leveraged shorts in 60 minutes. Bitcoin is now nearly $5,000 above its Friday night low after the US began attacks on Venezuela.”

However, the impact on energy prices plays the most important role. The Kobeissi Letter reported that natural gas futures fell 6% at one point shortly after reopening on Sunday evening and oil was back below $57 a barrel, near its lowest levels since 2021.

This is atypical in that energy prices “typically” move upwards during escalations with oil-producing countries. The difference this time, according to Kobeissi, is that greater US control of Venezuela could in the future bring “more oil and gas supply” onto the market; Accordingly, the market is not pricing in scarcity, but rather potentially additional supply.

“The market knows that this weekend’s events will ultimately lead to the opposite of a supply disruption,” Kobeissi wrote, adding: “The market is never wrong.”

This could have a positive impact on the inflation debate in the USA: more expected supply could depress energy prices, ease the inflation picture and thus provide tailwind for risk assets.

Order flow: Futures led, spot bought with them

Mechanically, the move was described in the material as a combination of fresh Bitcoin longs, short flush and moderate spot buying. YouTuber Furkan Yildirim wrote that the futures CVD slope was “clearly upward” and “accelerated significantly toward the breakout,” with derivatives leading the push. At the same time, the spot CVD is also pointing upwards, “slightly flatter than futures”: there is “real buying from the spot market,” but not as a dominant driver.

Seine assessment reads:

“The rise is driven by both sides (spot + derivatives), with futures leading. This speaks for short-term strength, but is vulnerable if OI continues to run higher and funding gets hot again. It will be more sustainable if spot CVD continues to rise and OI stabilizes after the jump instead of continuing to increase aggressively.”

What are the next price targets?

In the 4-hour chart, Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) points out that Bitcoin is back above the 200 moving averages. “BTC has broken above its 4H 200MA/EMA. This usually gives a good indication of short- to medium-term momentum,” he wrote, but cautioned that the start of the year and month tends to be “a bit rough.”

For him, the central level remains “the horizontal area around $94,000” as a range high. In the screenshot, the 4H-200EMA is at $89,814 and the 4H-200MA is at $89,286. The break above shows the current momentum in the market, but does not replace the break of the central resistance at $94,000.

On the weekly chart, Matt Hughes aka “The Great Mattsby” sets a specific weekly close as a goal. “Does this weekly candle close above 91,158 make bears nervous? It’s the first weekly close above this 1.414 fib since it broke below in November,” he wrote. The next designated level on its chart is at the 1.618 Fib at $102,076.

Dutch crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe describes the 12-hour chart as follows: “Here we are! Last hurdle before $100,000: This is where Bitcoin currently stands. I wouldn’t expect a clear, immediate breakout; but I expect it to happen in the coming week. The year started off bullish.”

Its chart also marks the zone between $93,000 and $94,000 as crucial resistance. If BTC can overcome this hurdle, $100,426 would be the next logical step, according to van de Poppe. Furthermore, it marks $105,797 and $110,545 as follow-on targets.