How the machine works: and why it burns
Twenty-seven elected Super Representatives take turns sealing a block every 3 seconds, transactions are metered in Bandwidth and Energy instead of gas, and the TRX paid in fees is burned. This page walks the machine end to end, consensus, the three-layer stack, the resource model, supply mechanics, and the history since 2017 that made TRON the largest USDT chain on Earth.
Delegated Proof of Stake: 27 Super Representatives
TRON is secured by Delegated Proof of Stake. TRX holders vote (1 staked TRX = 1 vote) to elect 27 Super Representatives who take turns producing a block every 3 seconds. Rankings are recalculated every 6-hour maintenance period; candidates ranked 28-127 are Super Representative Partners who earn voter rewards without producing blocks.
- Block reward
- 8 TRX per block (halved from 16 TRX by Proposal 102, effective June 13, 2025)
- TRON Developer Hub; ChainCatcher
- Voter reward
- 128 TRX per block shared across top-127 candidates by vote weight (cut from 160 TRX by Proposal 102)
- TRON Developer Hub; crypto.news
- Default SR brokerage
- 20% kept by the SR, 80% shared with voters (each SR can adjust)
- TRON Developer Hub
Three-layer architecture and the TVM
The protocol is organized into three layers: a storage layer (block and state data), a core layer (consensus, account management, and smart-contract execution), and an application layer (dApps, wallets, SDKs). Smart contracts run on the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM), which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so Solidity contracts can be deployed with minimal changes; recent upgrades added Ethereum Cancun-era opcodes. The network's design targets a throughput of about 2,000 transactions per second.
dApps, wallets, and SDKs built against the protocol
Consensus, account management, and smart-contract execution
Block data and state data
- Smart-contract engine
- TVM, EVM-compatible, executes Solidity contracts; fees metered in Energy instead of gas
- TRON Developer Hub (TVM)
- Cancun compatibility
- Transient storage (TIP-650), MCOPY (TIP-651) and blob-related opcodes (TIP-745) added in GreatVoyage v4.8.0 'Kant' (April 29, 2025)
- java-tron GitHub release
- Design throughput
- ~2,000 TPS design capacity (observed mainnet average is ~145 TPS at ~12.6M tx/day)
- TRON whitepaper v2.1; Tronscan daily stats
Bandwidth and Energy instead of gas
TRON meters transactions with two resources. Bandwidth is consumed by every transaction's byte size, and each account gets 600 free Bandwidth points daily, which is why simple TRX transfers are usually free. Energy powers smart-contract execution and has no free quota: users obtain it by staking TRX (or receiving delegated resources), or the network burns TRX from their balance at fixed rates. Since Proposal 104 took effect on August 29, 2025, the Energy unit price is 100 sun (down from 210 sun), roughly halving typical USDT transfer fees.
Every transaction consumes Bandwidth by byte size, the free daily quota is why simple TRX transfers are usually free.
Smart-contract execution burns Energy. It comes only from staking, delegation, or burning TRX at 100 sun per unit.
NO STAKED RESOURCES? THE NETWORK BURNS TRX FROM BALANCE, 1,000 SUN / BANDWIDTH POINT · 100 SUN / ENERGY UNIT
- Bandwidth burn rate
- 1,000 sun (0.001 TRX) per Bandwidth point/byte when quota is exhausted
- TRON Developer Hub (Tokenomics)
- Energy burn rate
- 100 sun (0.0001 TRX) per Energy unit, cut from 210 sun by Proposal 104 on Aug 29, 2025
- TRON Developer Hub; RootData
- Free Energy quota
- None, Energy comes only from staking, delegation, or burning TRX
- TRON Developer Hub (Resource Model)
- Fee-cut impact
- Average fees fell roughly 60%; daily network fee revenue dropped from about $13.9M to about $5M
- Bitget News / CryptoQuant data
Stake 2.0
Stake 2.0 (TIP-467) went live on the TRON mainnet in April 2023. It decoupled staking from resource delegation: one staked TRX position can now have its Bandwidth or Energy split and delegated to multiple addresses without unstaking, while the staker keeps governance votes. Unstaking under Stake 2.0 requires a 14-day waiting period before the TRX can be withdrawn.
- Key change
- Staking separated from resource delegation; resources divisible across multiple delegatees
- TRON Developer Hub (Resource Model)
Fee burning and net deflation
All TRX paid for Bandwidth or Energy beyond staked resources is burned, while only 136 TRX per block (about 3.92 million TRX per day) is newly issued as rewards. Cumulatively, about 16.78 billion TRX has been burned for resources and fees against roughly 12.67 billion TRX ever issued as block and vote rewards, so supply has contracted from its peak of roughly 102 billion in mid-2022 to about 94.89 billion. After the June 2025 reward halving, TRON's projected annualized deflation rate is about 1.29%, though actual net burn varies with network activity.
- Issuance
- 136 TRX per block (8 block reward + 128 vote reward) = ~3.92M TRX/day, set by Proposal 102 (June 13, 2025)
- TRON Developer Hub; ChainCatcher
- Net supply trend
- Deflationary on most days, fee burning exceeds issuance; projected ~1.29% annual deflation after the June 2025 reward halving
- TRON Developer Hub; Bitget News
- Staking rights
- 1 staked TRX = 1 vote plus Bandwidth or Energy; unstaking takes 14 days (Stake 2.0)
- TRON Developer Hub (Resource Model)
- Where TRX trades
- Listed on 100+ venues; top reported-volume markets include Binance, HTX, BitMart, Phemex, and Poloniex (CoinGecko tickers)
- CoinGecko markets
Genesis allocation
The genesis supply was 100,000,000,000 TRX; 1 billion TRX was burned at mainnet launch in June 2018 to mark Independence Day.
- Public sale (ICO, Aug-Sep 2017)40%
- Private sale and early investors25.7%
- TRON Foundation / ecosystem (now TRON DAO)34.3%
Why stablecoins chose TRON
TRON leads in USDT specifically, Ethereum still carries the larger total stablecoin float across all issuers.
The largest USDT chain on Earth
As of August 6, 2026, TRON hosts $89.6 billion of USDT, 49.0% of Tether's $183 billion circulating supply, versus $74.8 billion (40.9%) on Ethereum. Counting all USD-pegged stablecoins, TRON carries about $91.0 billion. USDT makes up over 95% of TRON's stablecoin float, making the chain effectively a purpose-built dollar-settlement network.
A settlement machine
TRON processes roughly 2.4 million USDT transfers every day (Tronscan, August 2026) out of about 12.6 million total daily transactions. When USDT on TRON crossed $75 billion in May 2025, TRON DAO reported average daily USDT transfer value above $20 billion and more than 1 million unique accounts moving USDT each day, at the time nearly 29% of all stablecoin transaction value across every blockchain.
- Share of global stablecoin transfer value
- ~29% across all chains (May 2025)
- TRON DAO via CoinDesk press release
Why TRON won stablecoin settlement
USDT launched on TRON in April 2019, when Ethereum's rising gas fees and ~13-second blocks made small dollar transfers costly and slow. TRON offered 3-second blocks and low, predictable fees, and free transfers for users who stake TRX for Energy, so by April 14, 2021 TRC-20 USDT supply had overtaken Ethereum's for the first time. The cost edge kept compounding: the August 2025 Energy price cut halved USDT transfer fees again, and the GasFree feature (March 2025) removed the need to hold TRX at all.
- First flip of Ethereum
- April 14, 2021, TRC-20 USDT passed $24B, exceeding ERC-20 supply
- TRON DAO (Medium)
- 2025 fee cut
- Energy price 210 -> 100 sun (Aug 29, 2025), ~60% lower average fees
- RootData; Bitget News
- GasFree transfers
- Since March 21, 2025 users can pay USDT transfer fees in USDT, holding zero TRX
- Blockchain.News
The emerging-markets dollar rail
Chainalysis data shows stablecoins account for about 43% of Sub-Saharan Africa's total crypto transaction volume, driven by remittances, cross-border trade, and inflation hedging rather than speculation, and sending a $200 remittance with stablecoins is roughly 60% cheaper than traditional fiat rails. The region received over $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, up 52% year over year, with Latin America growing at a similar clip. Cheap, fixed-fee TRC-20 USDT is the workhorse asset behind much of this activity.
- Stablecoin share of Sub-Saharan Africa volume
- ~43% of crypto transaction volume
- Chainalysis 2025 Sub-Saharan Africa report
- Sub-Saharan Africa on-chain value
- $205B+ received July 2024 - June 2025 (+52% YoY)
- Chainalysis 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency
USDD and the rest of the stablecoin roster
TRON's native stablecoin USDD launched May 5, 2022 as an algorithmic design backed by the TRON DAO Reserve, then relaunched in January 2025 as USDD 2.0, an over-collateralized CDP stablecoin fully backed by crypto reserves. It circulates about $1.50 billion as of August 2026, under 2% of the chain's stablecoin float. The legacy USDJ stablecoin is essentially wound down.
- USDD 2.0 redesign
- January 2025, over-collateralized CDP model replaced the algorithmic peg
- Stablewatch
Nine years on-chain
From a Singapore foundation and a $70M ICO to a Nasdaq bell and a settled SEC case, every milestone below is dated and sourced.
- Protocol
- Stablecoin
- DeFi
- Corporate
- Legal
- Corporate
TRON Foundation established
Justin Sun establishes the TRON Foundation in Singapore in July 2017 to develop the TRON protocol.
- Corporate
TRX ICO raises ~$70M days before China's ban
TRON's initial coin offering runs August 31 to September 2, 2017 on Binance, raising roughly $70 million. The sale closes just days before China announces its sweeping ICO ban.
- Protocol
Odyssey 2.0 mainnet launches
TRON releases its mainnet software Odyssey 2.0 on May 31, 2018, beginning a month-long migration of TRX off Ethereum.
- Protocol
Independence Day: genesis block created
TRON's genesis block is created at 00:00 Beijing time on June 25, 2018, completing the ERC-20 to mainnet token migration; 1 billion TRX is burned to mark the occasion.
- Corporate
TRON completes $140M BitTorrent acquisition
BitTorrent confirms on July 24, 2018 that TRON has closed its acquisition of the file-sharing pioneer for about $140 million, adding over 100 million users to the ecosystem.
- Stablecoin
Tether announces USDT on TRON (TRC-20)
Tether and TRON announce a TRC-20 version of USDT on March 4, 2019, with the token going live on the network in April 2019. It would become the defining asset of the chain.
- DeFi
JustSwap launches
TRON's first automated-market-maker DEX, JustSwap, goes live on August 18, 2020 (later acquired by SUN.io and rebranded SunSwap in 2021).
- DeFi
SUN token genesis mining
The SUN token launches with genesis mining in September 2020, kicking off TRON's DeFi yield-farming era.
- DeFi
JustLend launches
TRON's first money-market lending protocol JustLend goes live on December 7, 2020, attracting over $30 million in deposits within its first hour.
- Stablecoin
TRC-20 USDT overtakes Ethereum USDT for the first time
On April 14, 2021, Tether's statistics show TRC-20 USDT circulation passing $24 billion, exceeding the ERC-20 supply on Ethereum for the first time.
- Stablecoin
USDD launches with the TRON DAO Reserve
TRON DAO launches USDD, an algorithmic stablecoin managed by the newly formed TRON DAO Reserve, on May 5, 2022, days before the collapse of Terra's UST, whose mint-and-burn design USDD initially resembled.
- Legal
SEC sues Justin Sun and TRON entities
The U.S. SEC charges Justin Sun, the TRON Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry with offering unregistered securities (TRX, BTT) and market manipulation via wash trading.
- Protocol
Stake 2.0 activates on mainnet
TIP-467 (Stake 2.0) goes live in April 2023, separating TRX staking from resource delegation and introducing the 14-day unstaking period.
- DeFi
SunPump memecoin launchpad debuts
SunPump, TRON's first bonding-curve memecoin launchpad, launches in mid-August 2024 and mints over 18,000 tokens in its first 11 days, briefly outpacing Solana's Pump.fun in daily revenue.
- Stablecoin
USDD 2.0 relaunch as over-collateralized stablecoin
USDD relaunches in January 2025 as USDD 2.0, abandoning the algorithmic model for an over-collateralized CDP design fully backed by crypto reserves.
- Protocol
GasFree USDT transfers launch
TRON introduces the GasFree feature (first in TronLink), letting users pay USDT transfer fees in USDT itself, no TRX balance required.
- Protocol
GreatVoyage v4.8.0 'Kant' released
The mandatory Kant upgrade adds Ethereum Cancun-era opcodes (transient storage, MCOPY, blob opcodes), consensus-layer verification hardening, and an Event Service Framework 2.0.
- Protocol
Proposal 102 halves block rewards
TRON Super Representatives pass Proposal 102 (25 of 27 votes), cutting block rewards from 16 to 8 TRX and vote rewards from 160 to 128 TRX, lifting projected annual deflation to about 1.29%.
- Corporate
Tron Inc. debuts on Nasdaq
SRM Entertainment completes a $100 million reverse merger backed by a TRX treasury strategy, renames itself Tron Inc. (ticker changes from SRM to TRON effective July 17), and Justin Sun rings the Nasdaq opening bell on July 24, 2025.
- Protocol
Proposal 104 cuts Energy price to 100 sun
The Energy unit price drops from 210 to 100 sun, reducing average transaction fees by roughly 60% and halving the TRX cost of USDT transfers paid by burning.
- Protocol
GreatVoyage v4.8.1 'Democritus' released
Mandatory upgrade adding ARM64 architecture support alongside performance updates and new governance proposals.
- Legal
SEC case ends: claims dismissed, $10M penalty
The SEC and Justin Sun file a settlement in Manhattan federal court: Rainberry pays a $10 million civil penalty over wash-trading claims, and all remaining claims against Sun and the TRON entities are dismissed with prejudice, without admission of wrongdoing.
- Protocol
GreatVoyage v4.8.2 'Pyrrho' released
Mandatory upgrade strengthening Ethereum compatibility, protocol security, and node operations; node operators must upgrade by August 16, 2026 (SGT).
Every fact on this page is sourced, see the footnote links inline. Data snapshots verified 2026-08-06.
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