FF News Tattoo Studio: Inside XDC Trade Network’s Push for Fully Digital Trade

FF News Tattoo Studio conversation at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Sunil Senapati, CEO of XDC Trade Network, explains how his team is helping global trade move from paper-based processes to interoperable digital workflows. XDC Trade Network is built on the XDC Network, a layer-one blockchain protocol that serves as shared infrastructure rather than a single-company solution. Because trade always involves multiple parties and systems, Senapati says you need a common digital layer so everyone’s tools can “talk” to each other.

Senapati illustrates this with a simple example: a supplier might use one company’s software to create invoices, while the buyer uses another system for purchase orders. Those systems don’t automatically connect, so data doesn’t flow smoothly between them. XDC Trade Network solves this by putting trade documents on-chain so the supplier’s output becomes a standardised input for the buyer’s system via the blockchain. Each participant keeps using their preferred software, but the blockchain-based network ensures documents like invoices, purchase orders and other trade data can move securely and interoperably across all parties.

Senapati is optimistic about the timing as the industry expects global adoption of digital trade by 2030, and he notes that around 80% of world trade is governed by English law. The UK has already passed legislation in 2023 recognising electronic trade documents, and with major G7 economies such as the UK, France and Germany accepting digital documents, he believes full digital documentation across trade is well within reach this decade. In XDC Trade Network’s words, we’re at the bottom of the “hockey stick” curve, just before exponential growth.

On culture, Senapati describes XDC Trade Network as fast-growing, global and aligned on a clear mission, the company has opened a US office and is expanding across Europe. Team members are based in Singapore, the UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai), Switzerland, the UK, Australia, Japan, India and Germany. Despite being spread across time zones, they stay focused on using the XDC Network infrastructure to build practical business solutions, with trade as one of the main areas he leads.

That mission shapes how the company hires and organises its teams. Trade is complex, involving many document types, customs processes and regulatory steps and Senapati says they look for people with distinct strengths in different parts of the trade lifecycle, then let them own those areas end to end. By bringing together multi-disciplinary specialists and trusting them to manage their domains, XDC Trade Network can cover the full spectrum of services needed for digital trade while keeping everyone working towards the same goal.

The interview wraps up on a lighter note, with a mention of the “DZ United” team t-shirt from a US team XDC Trade Network used to sponsor, hinting at the community side of the brand. Overall, the conversation presents Senapati as practical and focused: XDC Trade Network isn’t trying to replace existing systems, but connect them so that, by 2030, digital trade is simply how global commerce operates.