TRON, the layer-1 blockchain founded by Justin Sun, ended the second quarter with $87.9 billion in circulating $USDT ($USDT), surpassing Ethereum (ETH) while processing $2.1 trillion in $USDT transfers during the period.
According to a Messari report, $USDT accounted for 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market, which grew 4.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record $89.2 billion. Average daily $USDT transfer volume also returned to growth, rising 4.3% to $22.8 billion after declining in the first quarter.
The increase coincided with record network usage. TRON averaged 11.8 million daily transactions during the quarter, up 8.7%, while average daily active addresses climbed 11.7% to 3.6 million. The network processed a record 14.6 million transactions on June 15, the report said.
State of TRON Q2 2026 report. Source: Messari
Higher activity also helped reverse a two-quarter decline in network fees. Fees rose 15.9% to $699.4 million, their first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change cut the network’s energy unit price.
Growth was uneven elsewhere. DeFi TVL slipped 1.9% to $4.4 billion, while average daily DEX volume fell 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking a fourth consecutive quarterly decline. $TRX supply also remained inflationary despite higher activity, with circulating supply increasing by 87 million tokens during the quarter as issuance continued to outpace burns.
TRON expands institutional access
Institutional access to TRON widened during the quarter, with Securitize launching Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on the network, its first TRON-issued asset. The fund launched with about $4.3 million under management.
Asset manager Grayscale also added $TRX ($TRX), the native token of the TRON blockchain, to its list of assets under consideration, while a proposed staked $TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration.
Meanwhile, $TRX saw broader market access during the quarter. Bitnomial launched spot $TRX trading in the United States, while OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated $TRX expiry perpetuals and Binance.US restored trading in the token.
That trend continued after the quarter ended, with Anchorage Digital adding native $TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, allowing institutional clients to stake $TRX directly from its custody platform.
