IOTA is one of the fastest risers in the cryptocurrency market. With a market cap around $5 billion, it stands eleventh in the rankings of the most valuable cryptocurrencies, but it boasts its own unique spin on blockchain technology and zero transaction fees. As more and more cryptocurrencies emerge, the ones that have unique features that improve the customer experience are likely to be the ones that stay the course, so the innovations of IOTA indicate great potential for the future.Recently, several prominent German corporations like Volkswagen and Bosch are showing their backing, and IOTA co-founder Dominik Scheiner believes that these new partnerships will herald the "next growth cycle" for the cryptocurrency. The establishment of new offices around the globe are a telling sign that IOTA is preparing for this anticipated growth.Mathematicians and developers in the IOTA Foundation receive payment in IOTA tokens, and the foundation has accumulated over 300,000 Euros in IOTA donations from currency users.Schiener's background in cryptocurrency started in 2013 when he attempted to launch his own digital trading exchange at the tender age of 17. This project failed to take off, losing him around 500,000 Euros, and Schiener attributed this failure to the relative infancy of virtual currencies at the time. He added that too many people associated cryptocurencies with drug trades and other "dark businesses", and that banks were unwilling to give him a company account on this basis. Schiener founded IOTA alongside David Sønstebø, Sergey Ivancheglo and Serguei Popov in 2015. By this time, bitcoin had gained far more credibility in the mainstream, meaning cryptocurrencies in general were more accepted. And with the slow rise through 2016 and 2017, IOTA looks like it is here to stay, with the determination to become one of the most valuable currencies in the world.