Stablecoins have become a backbone of the global crypto market, enabling trillions in payments and transfers. While Ethereum has long been considered the base layer for innovation, a new leader has emerged in stablecoin adoption: TRON. Recent data shows that TRON now outpaces Ethereum in both supply and settlement activity, raising questions about Ethereum’s role in this critical sector.
TRON Overtakes Ethereum in Stablecoin Supply
For years, investors believed Ethereum would dominate the stablecoin market. Its reputation as a secure, battle-tested smart contract network with deep liquidity made it the natural choice for stablecoin adoption.
However, data as of August 2025 tells a different story. TRON’s supply of Tether’s USDT has reached $80.8 billion, surpassing Ethereum’s $73.8 billion. This shift has pushed TRON’s market share of circulating USDT to over 63%, giving it a clear lead in stablecoin usage.
Investor Fred Krueger dismissed the long-standing belief that Ethereum was leading in stablecoins. “The idea that ETH is winning in stables is a fantasy,” he said, pointing directly to the numbers showing TRON’s growing dominance.
TRON’s Daily Activity Outpaces Ethereum
The difference between TRON and Ethereum becomes even clearer when examining payment activity. According to on-chain data, TRON processes around $21.5 billion in daily USDT transfers, almost seven times more than Ethereum.
More than 1 million unique wallets transact USDT on TRON each day, accounting for 28% of all active stablecoin wallets worldwide. The network now handles roughly 9 million transactions daily, representing 60% of global stablecoin settlement activity.
Ethereum, while still leading in decentralised finance (DeFi), NFTs, and broader blockchain innovation, struggles to match TRON’s scale in payments. Its higher transaction fees and lower throughput continue to drive stablecoin activity to TRON, which offers cheaper and faster transfers.
Scalability: TRON’s Technical Advantage
Performance metrics explain why TRON has gained the upper hand. According to Chainspect data, TRON outpaces Ethereum across nearly every scalability measure:
Real-time throughput: TRON manages 137.9 transactions per second (TPS) compared to Ethereum’s 17.83 TPS.
Maximum throughput (100 blocks): TRON peaks at 272 TPS, while Ethereum reaches only 62.34 TPS.
Theoretical maximum: TRON’s network capacity stands at 2,516 TPS, more than 95% higher than Ethereum’s 119.1 TPS.
Transaction count: TRON processes 496,315 transactions, over 7.7 times Ethereum’s 64,174.
Block production and finality further highlight TRON’s advantage. Its average block time is 3 seconds, compared to Ethereum’s 12 seconds. Transactions reach finality on TRON in under a minute, while Ethereum finality takes nearly 13 minutes.
This raw speed and scalability make TRON the preferred network for stablecoin transfers, particularly for high-frequency or cross-border payments.
Decentralisation vs. Efficiency
While TRON excels in speed and volume, Ethereum still holds the edge in decentralisation and security. Ethereum operates with over 1,082,000 validators, far exceeding TRON’s 27 validators. It also has nearly $151.8 billion staked, almost ten times more than TRON’s $15 billion.
Ethereum vs. TRON TPS chart. | Credit: Chainspect.
However, decentralisation does not tell the full story. TRON’s Nakamoto coefficient, a measure of resistance to collusion is 5, compared to Ethereum’s 2, suggesting a stronger balance among its limited validators. Additionally, TRON employs on-chain governance, allowing direct protocol decisions on-chain, while Ethereum continues to rely heavily on off-chain governance.
This contrast highlights a trade-off: Ethereum prioritises security and broad participation, whereas TRON optimises for speed and efficiency.
Solana and Others in the Race
Beyond TRON and Ethereum, other blockchains are slowly building a presence in the stablecoin space. Solana, for instance, has doubled its stablecoin supply in the past year, growing from $5 billion to $11.8 billion. Binance Smart Chain and several Ethereum Layer 2 networks are also competing, but none currently approach TRON’s scale or efficiency.
Despite its smaller ecosystem in areas like DeFi and NFTs, TRON has cemented itself as the global settlement layer for USDT. With stablecoins now central to the digital economy, this dominance gives TRON a powerful role in shaping the future of payments in crypto.
