Tether data showed that as of Aug. 13, 2026, another $1 billion in USDT had been issued on TRON, lifting the network’s total to $91.2 billion and putting it back ahead of Ethereum, which stood at $90.3 billion.
That placed TRON first among blockchain networks by USDT issuance. The source article described the move as another sign that low-fee, high-efficiency settlement networks continue to attract stablecoin liquidity at scale.
TRC20-USDT use has moved well beyond trading
The article said growth in USDT on TRON has been driven first by sustained real-world demand. As of August 2026, TRC20-USDT issuance on the network had passed $91.2 billion, a record high. Net issuance for the year was about 10 billion tokens, while the number of holding accounts had reached about 75.47 million.
At that scale, TRON has long carried roughly half of global USDT issuance, or about 50%, according to the report.
Usage data in the article pointed to a clearer payments profile. CoinDesk Research said TRON’s quarterly average of daily active accounts rose to about 3.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, a quarterly high. In retail USDT transfers below $1,000, TRON accounted for about 50% of activity. It also remained dominant in the $1,000 to $100,000 range. The article said one of the main uses of USDT on TRON has remained direct wallet-to-wallet value transfer.
Longer-range transaction and settlement figures were presented as support for that view. A Messari report cited in the article said TRON processed about $2.04 trillion in USDT transfer volume in the first quarter of 2026, with roughly 950 million transactions across the network. Average daily transactions increased from about 10.2 million in the previous quarter to about 10.9 million, another quarterly high. Since the start of 2026, TRON has led all public blockchains with about $4.2 trillion in USDT transferred.
The picture described in the source was not an internal exchange ledger. It was a public blockchain handling direct value movement across a large number of wallets.
The article gave several examples. An overseas worker can send USDT to a family wallet, with the recipient later converting it into local currency. A cross-border e-commerce merchant can settle with suppliers in USDT and cut exposure to bank operating hours and correspondent banking steps. A freelancer can receive payment from an overseas client and see on-chain confirmation within minutes. A digital asset service provider can move liquidity between exchanges, custody wallets and market-making accounts. The amounts and purposes differ, but the common requirements are fast settlement, transparent fees and round-the-clock availability.
Cost stability was another point highlighted in the report. Since August 2025, when TRON passed Governance Proposal No. 104 and reduced the unit price of energy by about 60%, on-chain transfer costs have moved lower.
Ecosystem access and compliance tools continue to expand
The article argued that long-term development for a stablecoin network depends not only on issuance volume, but also on access points, liquidity depth, developer support and risk controls. It said TRON has been building infrastructure across those areas at the same time.
On the access side, broad support for TRC20-USDT across wallets, trading platforms, payment providers and DeFi protocols has made it easier for users to deposit, withdraw, transfer, swap and interact on-chain. With newer stablecoins such as USDD joining the TRON ecosystem, the range of stablecoin assets has widened. Protocols including JustLend DAO have also extended stablecoin use into collateral and lending. The article said stablecoins are shifting from a single transfer tool toward becoming base assets for on-chain financial activity.
On user experience, mechanisms such as GasFree are meant to solve a familiar friction point: new users may hold USDT in a wallet but still be unable to send a transaction because they do not have the native token. By allowing related network fees to be paid in stablecoins, these systems are intended to simplify first-time use. For merchants, wallets and payment apps, reducing the need for users to understand bandwidth, energy and native gas tokens may also help stablecoin services reach a broader consumer base.
The article also focused on security coordination as the network scales. In September 2024, TRON, Tether and TRM Labs jointly launched the T3 Financial Crime Unit, or T3 FCU. The setup combines TRON’s network visibility, TRM Labs’ blockchain intelligence capabilities and Tether’s issuer-level freezing power, and works directly with law enforcement agencies in multiple jurisdictions.
According to the process described in the article, law enforcement first identifies wallets tied to illicit activity. TRM Labs then tracks fund flows, TRON provides network-level transaction visibility, and Tether carries out freezes at the issuer level.
As of May 2026, T3 FCU said it had frozen more than $450 million in illicit assets worldwide, covering 23 jurisdictions across five continents. TRM Labs said the mechanism can complete related action within 24 hours after receiving a law enforcement request. The article said the result shows how public blockchain transparency, combined with public-private coordination, can improve the identification of suspicious funds and the speed of response.
TRON also pointed to AI as a new direction
Beyond stablecoin settlement, the article said TRON has been increasing its focus on artificial intelligence. B.AI, which launched in April this year and carries the Chinese brand name 「白 B.AI」, was described as financial infrastructure for the AI agent era.
In the article’s framing, that effort is consistent with TRON’s established depth in stablecoins and its strengths in high-frequency, low-cost payments. It presented the move as an expansion from being the largest stablecoin settlement network toward becoming infrastructure for the AI agent economy.
From leading issuance volume to broader payment and settlement usage, more developed security mechanisms and a stated push into AI, the article said TRON’s USDT position is moving from scale accumulation to higher-quality growth. It ended by saying TRON will keep optimizing network performance and user experience around stablecoin infrastructure, while deepening cooperation with issuers, wallets, payment institutions and security analytics firms.