IOTA and GLEIF Forge Game-Changing Partnership to Revolutionize Digital Identity in Global Trade

Breaking the trust barrier in trillion-dollar trade flows.

IOTA's distributed ledger technology just partnered with GLEIF—the global LEI authority—to tackle one of finance's oldest problems: verifying who's who across borders.

Why this matters

Global trade runs on trust. But current identity systems? Fragmented, slow, and expensive. This collab aims to replace paperwork jungles with cryptographically verified digital identities that actually work across jurisdictions.

The tech stack

IOTA's feeless architecture meets GLEIF's Legal Entity Identifier framework. No middlemen. No settlement delays. Just immutable, instant verification that cuts compliance costs and slashes counterparty risk.

Because apparently in 2025, we're still faxing certificates of origin.

This isn't just another blockchain MoU—it's a functional upgrade to the plumbing of global commerce. And let's be real: if it saves one finance team from manually reconciling another Excel hellsheet, it's already winning.

The IOTA Foundation has announced a significant collaboration with the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) to enhance the use of trusted digital identities in global trade, according to the IOTA Blog. This partnership, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), seeks to leverage the capabilities of both organizations to create verifiable, on-chain trust for business interactions and trade networks.

Addressing Trust Challenges in Business

Businesses worldwide face the persistent challenge of verifying the legitimacy of their partners, which often involves navigating through inconsistent and disconnected registries. This process can delay transactions, increase costs, and introduce risks. GLEIF, established by the G20’s Financial Stability Board after the 2008 financial crisis, addresses these issues by providing businesses with a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and its digital counterpart, the verifiable LEI (vLEI). These identifiers help anchor entities to a database of trustworthy identities, thus promoting trust and transparency in financial systems.

Integrating IOTA’s Technology

The partnership will explore how IOTA’s Identity Framework and platforms like the Trade Worldwide Information Network (TWIN) can be integrated with GLEIF’s capabilities. This integration aims to streamline interactions and reduce friction in international trade processes by enabling businesses to verify counterparties and access trade finance more efficiently.

Potential Impact on Global Trade

By linking IOTA’s digital identity solutions with GLEIF’s vLEI and integrating these with TWIN Nodes, businesses can establish instant on-chain trust across global supply chains. This setup could facilitate DEEP verification processes, enhancing Know Your Business checks through cryptographic proofs. GLEIF also provides API-based services that expedite onboarding and registration processes, thus simplifying workflows and reducing trade process friction.

Benefits for Businesses Worldwide

For companies in regions such as the UK, Kenya, or the US, this partnership offers significant advantages, including simplified market entry, better access to finance, and automated collaboration with partners. Businesses with a vLEI can seamlessly onboard to the TWIN platform, integrating their data and trust credentials into the ecosystem, which enhances the potential for economic opportunities.

Jens Munch Lund-Nielsen, Head of Global Trade & Supply Chains at IOTA Foundation, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, stating that the partnership aligns teams, knowledge, and products to benefit users across both ecosystems. Dominik Schiner, Co-Founder and Chairman of the IOTA Foundation, highlighted the real-world problem-solving potential of blockchain technology, specifically through the integration of trusted digital identities in supply chains.

For more information, visit the IOTA Blog.

• iota
• gleif
• digital identity
• global trade