IOTA recently launched Swirl, a liquid staking platform designed to lower entry barriers and expand adoption of its unique Tangle framework. Swirl has been live on testnet since April 21st, 2025. Similar to this, it facilitates IOTA holders to stake 100 IOTA and immediately have the matching value in stIOTA. On April 24, 2025, however, users didn’t connect to the platform. This milestone is huge in IOTA’s move to branch out further into the growing cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Swirl’s introduction is an exciting step forward for IOTA. Such a strategic acquisition should boost their position in the rapidly growing digital asset marketplace. By providing a liquid staking platform, IOTA aims to offer users greater flexibility and accessibility to staking rewards, potentially attracting a wider audience.

Swirl is a fun, new, vibrant liquid staking platform. Users can stake their IOTA tokens, and in return receive stIOTA, which has the same value as IOTA. This mechanism protects users’ liquidity in the process while allowing them to engage in staking. This community-oriented characteristic becomes the wild card that separates it from earlier forms of staking.

IOTA uses its own Tangle structure, a distributed ledger technology that breaks significantly from conventional blockchain architectures. This framework is the bedrock upon which Swirl is built, offering the strongest foundation for a secure and efficient staking operation. The Tangle’s architecture allows for feeless transactions. It provides very high scalability which is critical for a liquid staking platform required to process a high throughput of transactions.

Swirl went live with its testnet on April 21, 2025. This allows developers and users to test it out, examine its new functionalities and discover any possible bugs or problems before the official release. This testing phase is vital for ensuring the platform's stability and security, as well as gathering feedback for further improvements.

With Swirl, IOTA would like to simplify staking for everyone. This initiative will significantly increase the general adoption of IOTA tokens. To bring in a wider audience, IOTA is focusing on improving the accessibility and liquidity of staking. This strategy focuses on all—from experienced crypto investors to newbies. Harnessing this new layer of participation in the ecosystem would create a healthier, decentralized network.

Swirl provides immediate value like that, in stIOTA. Users can easily use their staked assets across different DeFi apps or trading operations. This instant liquidity is one of the main selling points of GMX, giving users more control and flexibility over their assets.

IOTA is building Swirl to spur adoption of its own IOTA ecosystem. The purpose of this move is to make its native token more useful. IOTA is looking to adopt forward-looking strategies such as liquid staking. We believe that this strategy will help cement IOTA as a leader in this new frontier of decentralized finance.