IOTA (IOTA) Price Prediction

By CMC AI
01 October 2025 01:21PM (UTC+0)

TLDR

IOTA's price faces a tug-of-war between staking demand and supply inflation, with real-world adoption as the wildcard.

  1. Staking Demand vs. Token Unlocks – Binance's 29.9% APR locked products compete with biweekly unlocks adding ~19M IOTA (3% of monthly volume).

  2. Institutional Adoption Catalyst – Lukka compliance integration and TWIN Foundation trade pilots could attract enterprise capital.

  3. Network Scalability Proof – August’s v1.4.1 upgrade boosted TPS 60% to 50,000; usage must follow to justify valuation.


Deep Dive

1. Tokenomics Tension: Staking vs. Inflation (Mixed Impact)

Overview:
IOTA’s circulating supply grows by ~210M tokens through October 2025 (whitepaper), while Binance’s new locked staking products (16.9–29.9% APR) aim to absorb selling pressure. However, daily trading volume ($20.7M) barely covers 10% of monthly unlock value.

What this means:
Short-term price stability depends on whether staking demand offsets $3.3M/month in unlocks. Failure to attract sufficient capital could extend the -7.4% 30d trend, while oversubscribed staking might fuel a squeeze.


2. Enterprise Adoption Pipeline (Bullish Impact)

Overview:
Recent partnerships with Lukka (institutional compliance tools) and the TWIN Foundation (global trade digitization) position IOTA for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. The network processed 779k transactions in August, a 30% monthly increase post-upgrade.

What this means:
Every 100k sustained daily transactions would burn ~50k IOTA/day via fees, offsetting 25% of daily inflation. Successful RWA pilots (e.g., Kenya-Netherlands produce tracking) could drive network utility beyond speculative trading.


3. Layer-1 Competition Intensifies (Bearish Impact)

Overview:
IOTA’s $708M market cap trails newer L1s like SUI ($2.1B), despite comparable tech. Developer activity remains muted, with only 3 dApps (Swirl, Virtue, Pools) holding $36M TVL – 5% of Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

What this means:
Without accelerated dApp growth or EVM compatibility, IOTA risks becoming a “governance token for trade pilots” rather than a smart contract contender. The 90d +5.56% price gain lags the L1 sector average (+22%).


Conclusion

IOTA’s price trajectory hinges on executing its institutional adoption roadmap while managing inflation from unlocks. The key metric to watch is network fee burn rate – sustained transaction growth above 300k/day would signal real economic activity outweighing token dilution. Can IOTA transition from “IoT promise” to “trade infrastructure backbone” before newer L1s capture its niche?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.