Author: Nate Kostar

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Digest: Tron is quietly "overtaking" in the stablecoin race. Messari’s latest quarterly report shows that by the end of Q2, the circulation of USDT on Tron reached $87.9 billion, officially surpassing Ethereum, with the on-chain USDT transfer volume for the entire quarter reaching $2.1 trillion. More critically, this growth is not just superficial — daily average transaction volume, active addresses, and network fees are all rebounding, and the "tuition fee" after the governance price cut in August 2025 has finally started to pay off.

But the other side of the coin is: DeFi's locked value (TVL) and DEX trading volume have been declining for several consecutive quarters, and TRX is still under inflation. On the institutional side, however, there is an accelerating influx — Securitize has moved Hamilton Lane's credit fund to Tron, Grayscale has added TRX to its watchlist, and Anchorage has launched native staking. A quarterly report reflects the "two extremes" of Tron's situation.

Change of Stablecoin Dominance: USDT Circulation Peaks

Tron, a layer-1 public blockchain founded by Justin Sun, recorded a USDT circulation of $87.9 billion by the end of Q2, surpassing Ethereum (ETH), with an on-chain USDT transfer volume of $2.1 trillion during this period.

According to Messari's report, USDT accounts for 98.5% of the Tron stablecoin market, which increased by 4.1% quarter-on-quarter to a record $89.2 billion.
The daily average USDT transfer volume also returned to growth, rising by 4.3% to $22.8 billion after a decline in Q1.

Image: State of TRON Q2 2026 report

Network Activity Hits Records, Fees Stop Decline and Rise

Activity soared alongside record network usage. Tron averaged 11.8 million daily transactions this quarter, an 8.7% increase quarter-on-quarter; the daily average active addresses increased by 11.7% to 3.6 million.

The report states that on June 15, a single day handled 14.6 million transactions, setting a new historical record.

Higher activity also helped the network fees end two consecutive quarters of decline. Fees increased by 15.9% quarter-on-quarter to $699 million, marking the first quarterly increase since the governance reform lowered the network energy price in August 2025.

Two Extremes: DeFi and DEX Still Shrinking

Other areas are growing unevenly. DeFi's locked value (TVL) fell slightly by 1.9% to $4.4 billion, while the daily average DEX trading volume declined by 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of decrease.

Despite rising activity, TRX supply remains inflationary, with circulation increasing by 8.7 million coins this quarter as issuance continued to outpace destruction.

Institutional Access Widely Opened

This quarter, institutional access to Tron has notably broadened. Securitize launched Hamilton Lane's tokenized senior credit opportunity fund on Tron, marking its first asset issued on Tron, with an initial management size of approximately $4.3 million.

Asset management firm Grayscale has also included Tron’s native token TRX in its "assets under consideration" list; the staking version of TRX proposed by Canary Capital is still in the registration process.

Meanwhile, TRX gained broader market access this quarter: Bitnomial launched TRX spot trading in the US, OKX Europe listed TRX perpetual contracts regulated by MiFID, and Binance.US resumed trading of the token.

This trend continued after the quarter ended — in July, Anchorage Digital added native TRX staking and TRC-20 asset custody, allowing institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform.