While neither the world’s largest nor the world’s best-known blockchain, Tron (TRX) has been gaining ground when it comes to transactions involving USDT. In fact, at the time of publication, Google Trends shows that global interest in Tron USDT has been as high as in Ethereum USDT over the previous year.
The trend is further corroborated by a paper published by Brevan Howard, an Isle of Jersey-based hedge fund with over $35 billion in assets under management (AUM), titled “The Relentless Rise of Stablecoins”. Between January and August 2023, Tron accounted for 35% of volume, 37% of transactions, and 49% of active stablecoin addresses, according to the document.
The paper similarly notes that there has been a broader dwindling of Ethereum (ETH) when it comes to stablecoin activity in favor of not only Tron but also other blockchains like Avalanche (AVAX) and Polygon (MATIC).
Tron’s growth primarily stems from emerging markets
According to Google Trends, the growth of Tron and its dominance over Ethereum is primarily driven by activity across numerous emerging markets.
For example, it is generating particular interest in Iran, Russia, and Ukraine. Over the previous 365 days, it has also been noticeably more popular in the Netherlands and Australia. In contrast, Ethereum retains its dominance in the US.
Tron is also reportedly increasingly popular in Latin America. Sources in Argentina, for example, told The Defiant that they estimate that as much as 95% of their stablecoin transactions are conducted using Tron. They also expressed their belief that the driving force behind the trend is the low transaction costs, and high speeds offered by the blockchain.
One of the key reasons why low-cost and high-speed stablecoin transactions have been gaining popularity in multiple countries in Latin America is that they serve to protect people from extremely high inflation rates. Argentina, for example, is expected to have had an inflation rate well above 120% in 2023.
TRX gaining ground throughout 2023
Along with the rise in popularity of the Tron blockchain for stablecoin transactions, its token, TRX, has also been gaining ground in recent months. Its price rose nearly 60% in the last year and more than 3% in the last 24 hours up to $0.099 – the highest it’s been since late 2021.
Tron’s rise is also accompanied by a number of actions taken by the Tron Foundation. In August 2023, it partnered with Curve Finance to bring the latter’s DEX to its network. Additionally, it has also integrated with Google Cloud in early October with the explicit goal of boosting on-chain activity.
The growth of the blockchain in 2023 remains in stark contrast with the reputation the foundation – and its founder Justin Sun – have gained within the community. Sun in particular has proven to be a controversial figure and even became the target of an SEC lawsuit filed in March 2023 over allegedly selling unregistered securities.
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