TRON

What it is

TRON is a layer 1 blockchain, a base network with its own token, TRX, founded by the entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2017 and launched on its own mainnet in May 2018. It set out to be a decentralised platform for entertainment and content; what it actually became is one of the busiest settlement networks for dollar stablecoins. One memorable fact: Tether’s own transparency figures have long shown TRON and Ethereum hosting the largest shares of all USDT in existence, meaning a great deal of the world’s crypto-dollar traffic runs over this chain.

How it works

TRON uses delegated proof of stake. TRX holders vote for 27 “super representatives”, who take turns producing blocks and stand for re-election every six hours, with rewards flowing to them and to the voters who backed them. Instead of paying gas directly for every action, users can stake TRX to receive “bandwidth” and “energy”, renewable allowances that cover transaction costs, which is part of why routine transfers feel cheap to everyday users. Smart contracts are compatible with Ethereum’s developer tooling, and the TRC-20 token standard is the format in which TRON-based USDT moves. A portion of every fee is burned, which at times has offset new issuance entirely and briefly made the supply shrink.

The story so far

TRON’s history tracks its founder’s talent for attention: a $70 million initial coin offering in 2017, the purchase of BitTorrent in 2018, a record-setting $4.6 million charity lunch with Warren Buffett in 2019. The serious chapter opened in March 2023, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun and his companies, alleging unregistered offers and sales of TRX and manipulative wash trading; in February 2025 the parties jointly asked the court to pause the case while they explored a resolution. Through all of it the network itself has run without major interruption, and its stablecoin traffic has kept growing year on year.

Where it stands

As of late July 2026 TRX ranks eighth by market value at about $31 billion (CoinGecko), trading near $0.33 against a peak of about $0.43 in December 2024, with roughly 95 billion TRX in circulation and no fixed cap. What to watch: whether TRON keeps its outsized share of USDT settlement as regulated rivals court the same payment flows under new US stablecoin law, the final outcome of the paused SEC case, and the burn rate that determines whether supply grows or shrinks. TRON’s fortunes and stablecoin usage have effectively become the same trade, and both sides of it are worth following.