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– TRON ended Q3 with strong revenue figures, driven by heightened stablecoin and meme token activity on the network.
– TRX surged to $0.15, approaching its all-time high.
– The network increased its USDT supply in 2024, supporting the stablecoin’s adoption and use for significant transfers.
TRON recorded the highest Q3 revenue among major blockchain networks, continuing its trend of outperforming Ethereum and Bitcoin. The blockchain consistently reported strong fee inflows, driven by stablecoin usage and token activity.
In Q3 2024, TRON once again led all blockchains in revenue, with earnings ranging between $572M and $577M, depending on reporting methods. This represents a 43% growth compared to Q2. TRON’s fees outperformed other major chains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin, marking a record quarter with significantly higher earnings. | Source: TokenTerminal
- TRON on Track to Challenge All-Time High
TRX is moving towards its record valuation from the 2017 rally, with steady growth over the past year, rising from $0.089 at the end of 2023. Trading volumes for TRX reached a one-year high in Q3, with daily volumes now exceeding $380M, reinforcing its place as a top 10 cryptocurrency. The token maintained its value around $0.15 following the news of TRON’s profitable quarter.
TRON’s revenue generation placed 12-month fees at $1.6B, with high earnings retention. The chain easily surpassed Ethereum’s quarterly fees of $111.57M, especially as ETH network activity slowed. Bitcoin’s network, though generating over $830M in value, directs most of it to miners, unlike TRON, which retains much of its earnings. Bitcoin also lags behind TRON in terms of fees, as TRON benefits from its token-based economic model.
Additional contributors to network activity included a resurgence of DeFi and DEX trading and the launch of the meme token hub, SunPump, which added to TRON’s peak Q3 results. SunPump alone generated $53.2M (34,550,658 TRX) from new launch fees by hosting over 89,000 new meme tokens.
TRON’s Consistent Fee Retention
- TRON maintains a steady monthly earnings level between $20M to $30M, with August being the most profitable at $38.99M, despite broader market corrections. In contrast, Ethereum’s network distributes its earnings to stakers, reducing its retained income. TRON, described as a “fat-fee app,” benefits from consistent fee generation, while also experiencing token burns that contribute to a mildly deflationary model.
- TRON’s Lead in On-Chain Traffic
TokenTerminal data shows TRON consistently ranks just behind Tether (USDT) in quarterly revenues, with no other blockchain matching TRON’s results. It also has one of the highest daily active user counts among all L1 and L2 chains. Based on total token transfers, TRON handles over 8 billion transactions daily. - TRON’s recent traffic boost came from increased activity in its native DeFi and meme token trading sectors. Despite its relatively smaller ecosystem compared to some other meme tokens, TRON’s assets have a combined market cap of $15B. However, affordable transaction fees have led to peak traffic reports, particularly for TRON-based USDT.
- TRON’s USDT supply has grown to 61.8 billion tokens, out of a global total of 119.64 billion tokens. It supports over 2.2 million daily transactions across more than 53 million wallets. In September 2024, recipients of TRON-based USDT grew to 3.9 billion wallets, demonstrating its use for both DeFi and large liquidity transfers.
- Low network fees have also promoted TRON-based USDT usage, boosting the chain’s fee generation. TRON is currently the most active network for transactions between $1,000 and $10,000. At the end of September, TRON handled 3.49M transfers in this range, while Ethereum managed just 100K such transfers due to higher gas fees. Notably, specific wallets on TRON allow USDT to be used to pay gas fees.
TRON competes with leading L1 and scalable L2 chains, supported by its independent liquidity from native USDT, and will soon support Wrapped BTC (WBTC). The TRON network has kept up with recent Web3 trends, albeit with a different user culture and unique applications, including its own DEX and DeFi protocols. Founder Justin Sun remains active in broader blockchain projects, including Ethereum’s ecosystem, where he was a top whale in the Eigen layer, though he divested much of his EIGEN airdrop shortly after its release.
