Global stablecoin traffic continues to shift lanes. The latest Messari report shows that the TRON network closed the second quarter of 2026 with a USDT supply of $87.9 billion - a position that has surpassed Ethereum. The total stablecoin market value on the network created by Justin Sun rose 4.1% from the previous quarter, hitting a record $89.2 billion. Out of this large pie, USDT dominates with a 98.5% share.
The circulation volume is moving just as fast as the stored balances. Throughout Q2, the value of USDT transfers on TRON surpassed $2.1 trillion. Average daily USDT transfer volume also rose 4.3% to $22.8 billion, ending the downward trend from the first quarter. Average daily transactions grew by 8.7% to 11.8 million, driven by an 11.7% increase in daily active addresses to 3.6 million users. This activity peaked on June 15, 2026, when the network processed a record 14.6 million transactions in a single day.
This surge in activity is reflected in TRON’s financial balance sheet. Network revenue rose 15.9% to $699.4 million. This marks the first quarterly revenue increase since August 2025, when a governance update cut the price of energy units that had previously squeezed their revenue.
Two Opposite Directions
But behind the pace of stablecoin transfers, TRON’s decentralized finance (DeFi) activity is actually fading. Total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector fell 1.9% to $4.4 billion. Daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume plummeted 21.7% to $49.3 million. This decline has been going on for four consecutive quarters.
On the tokenomics side, the TRX supply remains inflationary. The number of coins in circulation increased by 87 million tokens, due to the new issuance exceeding the amount of burned coins.
Growing Institutional Presence
The DeFi slump did not deter the entry of institutional capital. Securitize recently launched its first Hamilton Lane fund on TRON - the Senior Credit Opportunities Fund - with $4.3 million in initial assets under management. This July, Anchorage Digital also began offering native TRX staking and TRC-20 custody services for their institutional clients.
Acceptance from Wall Street and centralized exchanges is also becoming more open. In the US, Bitnomial launched a TRX spot market, while Binance.US restored trading services for this token. In Europe, OKX Europe introduced TRX perpetual products that comply with MiFID regulations. More aggressive moves came from the investment fund industry: Grayscale included TRX in its list of assets under consideration, and Canary Capital has filed for a TRX staking ETF, which is still in the registration stage.
The usage pattern is now clearly defined. TRON may not be as attractive as it once was for DeFi speculation, but it has a permanent place as digital dollar infrastructure and a settlement layer for institutional managed funds.
Reported by Cointelegraph.
Read also: What Is DeFi (Decentralized Finance)?
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
