USDT supply on TRON moved ahead of Ethereum in the second quarter
TRON closed the second quarter of 2026 with $87.9 billion in circulating USDT, surpassing Ethereum, according to Messari’s State of TRON Q2 2026 report. Over the same period, USDT transfer volume on TRON reached $2.1 trillion.
The report said USDT made up 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market. That lifted the chain’s total stablecoin supply 4.1% quarter over quarter to a record $89.2 billion. Average daily USDT transfer volume also returned to growth after a decline in Q1, rising 4.3% to $22.8 billion.
The figures show how central USDT remains to TRON’s on-chain economy, with stablecoin activity continuing to drive the network’s scale.
Activity hit new highs and fee revenue rebounded
Network usage rose across the quarter. TRON recorded 11.8 million average daily transactions, up 8.7% from the previous quarter, while average daily active addresses increased 11.7% to 3.6 million.
Messari said the network handled 14.6 million transactions on June 15, the highest single-day total on record.
Higher activity also helped reverse the decline in fee generation. Fee revenue rose 15.9% quarter over quarter to $699 million, ending two consecutive quarters of decline. Messari said this was the first quarterly increase since the August 2025 governance change that reduced the network’s energy unit price.
DeFi and DEX metrics remained weak while TRX supply stayed inflationary
Not every segment of the network improved in Q2. TRON’s DeFi total value locked fell 1.9% to $4.4 billion, while average daily DEX volume dropped 21.7% to $49.3 million. That marked the fourth consecutive quarter of decline for DEX trading activity.
TRX supply also continued to expand. The report said circulating supply increased by 87 million tokens during the quarter because issuance kept outpacing burns.
Institutional access broadened during and after the quarter
Institutional activity on TRON widened in Q2. Securitize issued Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on TRON, marking its first asset launched on the network, with initial assets under management of about $4.3 million.
Asset manager Grayscale added TRX, TRON’s native token, to its list of assets under consideration. Canary Capital’s proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product remained in the registration process.
TRX also gained wider market access during the quarter. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, OKX Europe listed MiFID-regulated TRX expiring perpetual futures, and Binance.US resumed trading for the token.
The trend continued after the quarter ended. In July, Anchorage Digital added native TRX staking and custody support for TRC-20 assets, allowing institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform.