IoTeX 2025 in Review

For as long as humans have been alive, the world’s economy was built around us. Value came from human labor and decisions. Machines were simply tools. They produced output but did not participate in the economy.

That assumption no longer holds. Over time the physical world has been quietly filling with machines. Vehicles, solar panels, weather stations, humanoid robots, industrial equipment, networks, and billions of devices now sense their environment continuously.

Those sensory inputs increasingly feed models. Those models increasingly drive action. Robots now respond to real-world conditions in real time often without human intervention.

As AI and robotics move into the physical world, computation alone is not enough. AI must be grounded in live, verifiable real world data and interact with machines as first class participants in digital and economic systems.

In 2025, IoTeX focused on the foundational problem beneath this shift: how do you securely and verifiably connect machines to intelligence, coordination, and economic value?

By the end of the year, that question was no longer theoretical. IoTeX had matured into the first verifiable blockchain infrastructure purpose-built to connect machines to intelligence, laying the foundation for what we now call Real World AI.

This is how that happened.

The Rise of Real-World AI

At the start of 2025, AI was still largely framed as a software problem.

Progress was measured by model size and training efficiency, driven by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. But as enterprises began deploying agentic AI into real operational environments, a different constraint came into focus: real-world context.

AI systems operating in the physical world need accurate, real-time information about their surroundings. This realization underpinned IoTeX’s Open Ecosystem announcement, which clarified the network’s role as an open infrastructure layer connecting devices, data, AI agents, and enterprises.

The launch of the Real-World AI Foundry gave this direction practical momentum. Through the Foundry, IoTeX brought together alignment partners across enterprises, research, and infrastructure to define shared standards for Real-World AI, including Filecoin, Vodafone, Theta, and the Blockchain Association.

External research reinforced this positioning. IoTeX was included as a core case study in Messari’s State of AI report as the infrastructure addressing a foundational gap in the AI stack. The report highlighted the need for verified real-world data and identified IoTeX as one of the few platforms attempting to solve this at the system level.

These ideas were explored in greater depth by our research team in their Forbes Technology Council article on layered intelligence for agentic IoT. Intelligence emerges across layers, from perception at the edge to reasoning and coordination at higher levels.

IoTeX anchored its identity and roadmap around Real-World AI as the network’s core strategic focus.

Verified Stack for The Real-World AI: Reason, Act, Settle

Real-World AI requires more than intelligence in isolation. It requires reasoning systems, acting systems, and a settlement layer that connects them. In 2025, IoTeX delivered all three.

First: software that can reason.

AI agents are increasingly capable of reasoning and decision-making, but only if they can access reliable, real-time context. To solve this, IoTeX built Quicksilver in 2025, a verification and data gateway that allows AI agents to request, validate, and consume live machine data with cryptographic assurance. Quicksilver moved rapidly from concept to production, powering multiple live AI agents across weather intelligence, decentralized compute, and mobility. By year’s end, thousands of agent queries were being processed daily—clear evidence that verified real-world data is becoming a core input for agentic AI systems.

Quicksilver-powered AI agents launched into production across multiple domains, including Caila, a weather intelligence agent built with Nubila using verified weather station data, Nodey, a compute-focused agent with Impossible Cloud Network verifying decentralized cloud performance, and a live agent demo with DIMO showing how AI systems can query and act on verified vehicle data in real time.

Quicksilver agents moved into continuous operation, with live AI agents querying verified real-world data at scale. At peak, the network processed more than 3,000 AI agent queries per day, reflecting active systems consuming machine data to make decisions in real time. Even outside peak periods, usage remained consistent, with an average of 621 daily agent requests in Q3, representing more than 2× growth compared to June.

IoTeX also demonstrated machine-native economic coordination through a live agent-to-agent payment demo using Coinbase’s x402 protocol, running on IoTeX. In the demo, AI agents Caila and Bino requested verified real-world intelligence and settled payments autonomously onchain, without human intervention.

By year’s end, both Quicksilver and Bino were officially listed in Coinbase's x402 ecosystem. Quicksilver is recognized as a service that can receive payments for verified data using x402, while Bino is recognized as a client capable of paying for data using the protocol. This formal inclusion signaled external validation of IoTeX’s role in enabling machine-to-machine commerce.

Second: machines that can act.

Reasoning alone is not enough. AI must connect to machines that can execute decisions in the physical world. This is why IoTeX advanced ioID, a decentralized, non-PII identity layer that turns machines into verifiable, autonomous participants. Each ioID represents a real device—vehicles, sensors, infrastructure—paired with an onchain wallet, enabling machines to be addressed, trusted, and coordinated by AI systems. The rapid growth of ioID adoption reflects a growing universe of machines that are not just data sources, but active actors.

By the end of 2025, IoTeX is on track to reach 1 million ioIDs, making ioID one of the largest deployments of verifiable machine identity in the industry.

Third: blockchains that can settle.

When intelligent agents reason and machines act, outcomes must be coordinated and settled economically. IoTeX’s blockchain provides this settlement layer. As AI agents query data, machines respond, and value is exchanged, activity flows onchain. The result in 2025 was clear: rising transaction volume, sustained daily usage, and growing protocol revenue driven by real demand rather than speculation.

At the network level, IoTeX sustained 196.6K average daily transactions with 130+ live applications operating across DePIN, AI, and real-world data use cases. This activity translated directly into economic usage. In Q3, IoTeX generated $110.2K in protocol revenue, up 16.2% quarter over quarter, driven by real demand for verification, agent execution, and coordination. DEX activity grew 90% QoQ, accounting for 71.5% of total protocol revenue, signaling usage-driven value rather than speculation.

Together, these layers form a complete loop:

AI agents reason → machines act → blockchains settle. This closed system is what enables Real-World AI to operate continuously, autonomously, and at scale—and it is the core infrastructure breakthrough IoTeX delivered in 2025.

From Working Infrastructure to Institutional-Grade Scale

Building Real-World AI infrastructure is only the first step. To scale into global markets, that infrastructure must meet the requirements of enterprises, regulators, exchanges, and capital markets. In 2025, IoTeX crossed this threshold—moving from a system that works to a platform that can be deployed, regulated, and integrated at institutional scale.

In 2025, IoTeX published a MiCA-compliant whitepaper for IOTX, establishing a clear foundation for EU-wide integration under the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework. Rather than treating compliance as a constraint, IoTeX approached it as a requirement for sustainable adoption by exchanges, custodians, and enterprises.

Policy engagement deepened throughout the year. IoTeX participated actively in the Blockchain Association and the Digital Chamber, engaging with policymakers through DC fly-ins and the Blockchain Association Policy Summit. These discussions focused on market structure, RWAs, DePIN, and machine-linked assets, areas where clear definitions are still emerging.

IoTeX also completed the 0x address migration, transitioning from a custom "io" address format to the Ethereum-standard “0x” format, with exchanges like Binance coordinating seamless balance mappings so IoTeX could integrate cleanly with enterprise wallets, custodians, and regulated exchange infrastructure.

IoTeX also reached an important milestone in institutional recognition with inclusion in CF Benchmarks, a UK BMR-regulated benchmark administrator. The launch of the IOTXUSD_RTI institutional pricing index unlocked eligibility for ETFs and derivatives, positioning IOTX for integration into traditional financial products that require robust, verifiable reference pricing.

Regulated platforms such as Sumeria, FUTU, N26, and eToro US expanded access to IOTX, reflecting growing confidence among compliance-focused institutions. These brokerage platforms are the primary retail onramps across Europe and Asia—the regional equivalents of Robinhood.

By the end of the year, IoTeX was aligned with regulatory expectations across major jurisdictions while preserving its decentralized foundation.

Adoption by Real-World Leaders

Infrastructure gains credibility through use.IoTeX announced a strategic investment from Animoca Brands, one of the most influential global investors in Web3 and open digital ecosystems. Animoca also joined as a network validator and ecosystem partner. Together, IoTeX and Animoca are accelerating the adoption of real-world AI across Asia and globally, expanding the reach of Real-World AI.

IoTeX partnered with HashKey Exchange, Hong Kong’s number one licensed crypto exchange, to launch the city’s first AI Ecosystem Center. HashKey provides regulated fiat rails and exchange infrastructure, while IoTeX supplies the underlying trust, identity, and data verification stack.

On the market side, IOTX/HKD launched on HashKey Exchange, a huge expansion in access within regulated Asian markets.U Power, a NASDAQ-listed electric vehicle company, joined the IoTeX ecosystem to bring its battery-swap and EV charging infrastructure on-chain. The partnership focuses on tokenizing real-world energy assets and anchoring operational data to IoTeX. IoTeX provides the identity and data layer that enables AI systems and financial applications to interact with physical EV infrastructure reliably.

IoTeX partnered with Pairpoint by Vodafone and Chainlink to connect real-world telecom infrastructure onchain. Using Pairpoint’s SecurePoint technology, Chainlink’s CRE, and IoTeX’s DePIN and AI infrastructure, assets such as cell towers and connected devices can now prove real-world usage directly on the blockchain. This enables new ways to track, finance, insure, and reward infrastructure based on verified data, providing a working example of the Real-World AI economy in action.

Together, these partnerships showed consistent trust and practical use-cases from enterprises, AI developers, and real-world networks.

In 2025, IoTeX hosted Real-World AI Summits across Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York. These events emphasized live demonstrations of verified data powering AI systems, with enterprise participants focused on deployment realities.

Crypto’s Got Talent, a live pitch competition, evolved into a structured builder pipeline for real-world AI and machine intelligence teams. The program became a core driver of ecosystem growth and was recognized with the BeinCrypto Award for Best Ecosystem Program for Developers, highlighting its impact beyond traditional hackathons.

Governance and Network Hardening

In 2025, IoTeX delivered the v2.3.0 upgrade, including IIP-42, which halved block time and doubled throughput to 2,000 TPS. Alongside two-second finality and a Nakamoto coefficient of 9, these changes strengthened the network’s ability to support real-time machine data and AI-driven workloads at scale.

IoTeX also advanced its multichain strategy, making IOTX available on Solana via Wormhole to support broader interoperability across ecosystems.

Network security and long-term alignment strengthened in parallel. By year’s end, $77.5M worth of IOTX was staked, representing 40.3% of eligible supply locked. This reflected growing confidence from network participants in IoTeX’s long-term role as infrastructure, rather than a short-term platform.These improvements reflected a broader theme. Infrastructure supporting real-world systems must be dependable over time.

The Path Forward: Make Intelligence Tangible

Our mandate for 2026 is clear: All in on Edge AI—physically manifested intelligence. We are bridging the gap between digital models and physical reality.

While the market competes on algorithms, IoTeX competes on utility and adoption. Our 2025 pilots proved a simple truth: when AI lives inside physical objects, not just in the cloud, latency drops, privacy improves, and willingness-to-pay rises. One breakout product in particular validated this shift, showing clear PMF and early revenue traction.

With validation complete, 2026 is about commercialization. We are scaling a small number of high-conviction Edge AI products, supported by IoTeX’s core infrastructure for identity, verification, and coordination.

We are building for a world where objects don’t just function—they think, act, and transact.

That is where the next wave of AI value will be created.