How TRON’s 60% fee cut can reshape stablecoin payments

Key Takeaways

The 60% slash in TRON’s transaction fees saw a drop in the revenues. The network has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the market’s favorites for stablecoin remittances.

The TRON [TRX] network implemented a historic 60% reduction in transaction gas price on the 29th of August. This adjustment lowered the energy unit price from 210 sun to 100 sun, CryptoQuant Research noted.

Source: CryptoQuant

The current gas price is the lowest since 2021. The move was done to counter the rising on-chain costs that were driven by the TRX price appreciation.

The average transaction fee fell to $0.59 on the 8th of September, the lowest level since April 2024.

The fee drop was also accompanied by a drop in revenue. Total daily network fees declined from $13.9 million before the gas price reduction to $5 million on the 7th of September.

Source: CryptoQuant

Another on-chain analyst captured how the 100-day moving average of block size climbed to its highest level since July 2023. The block size represents the volume of data and transactions within the block.

The sustained growth was a strong bullish sign for the TRON network. It indicated an organic and ongoing rise in network usage.

Why is the TRON network witnessing steady growth?

Source: CryptoQuant

On the 12th of September, user Darkfost pointed out that there was an explosion of whale transaction (exceeding $100k) activity on the TRON network.

Whale activity accounted for a whopping 86% of the USDT transfer volume on the day.

This was not an isolated incident. The high whale activity was described as “institutional grade” and was accompanied by rising network activity.

The network was processing 11 million transactions, close to historic highs for the network.

Therefore, the reasons behind TRON’s growth seem to be rising public acceptance and the network’s popularity as the primary stablecoin remittance layer, especially USDT.

Source: CryptoQuant

The difference between TRON and Ethereum [ETH] showed a clear difference in USDT transaction volumes.

Comparing the average USDT transaction sizes on both the networks, TRON was at $465 (7-day SMA) while Ethereum’s average (7-SMA) was $117.

Moreover, the average transaction size in recent months has been steady on TRON but has receded on Ethereum.

This suggested Ethereum was used in smaller transactions, likely DeFi-related and other payments.

It reinforced TRON network’s standing as the go-to network for stablecoin settlement, and highlighted the market’s confidence in the network.