TRON is fast becoming the home of stablecoins, having gained more market share than any other layer-1 this year for dollar issuance. The $6.4 billion of USDT that arrived onchain as a TRC-20 asset was the highlight of an action-packed year for TRON that included partnerships with Samsung and Huawei, the Steemit takeover and BitTorrent File System launch. TRON’s evolution into a crypto later for dollar settlement was arguably the biggest breakthrough, though, forming a scalable network for USD-pegged payment routing. On December 18, Tether revealed that it had reached the symbolic market cap of $20 billion, in what’s been a record-breaking year for stablecoin growth.
Tether Unleashed as TRC-20
Omni, developer of the USDT stablecoin, had already migrated the bulk of its stablecoins to Ethereum from its own blockchain to capitalize on ETH’s network effects and burgeoning DeFi scene. As Ethereum fees began to rise in 2020, however, it became clear that a cheaper alternative was needed to route billions of dollars of fiat-denominated assets. TRON was the natural candidate, not just on account of its low-fee environment and higher throughput, but its strong ecosystem of dApps, which have now surpassed a daily transaction volume of $12 million.
Throw in JustSwap, the AMM TRON launched for decentralized token swaps, and the release of WBTC on TRON, and Tether’s arrival made perfect sense. It didn’t take long for the TRC-20 version of USDT to start gaining traction either; there’s now over $6.4 billion of the stablecoin on the TRON network out of a total stablecoin market cap of $25 billion. As Quantum Economics noted in its summary of Messari’s 2020 annual report, "stablecoins are eating the world."
Stabilize All the Things
Stablecoins allow for secure self-custody and efficient global access to crypto services to trade, earn interest, acquire loans, hedge volatility, process remittances and capture new DeFi opportunities. All while minimizing the price volatility of funds by keeping its value fixed against a traditional asset class. They also allow you to pay for your Pornhub subscription, as Justin Sun gleefully pointed out.
This year, TRON acquired a mixture of fiat-backed and crypto-collateralized stablecoins. While Tether dominates TRON’s stablecoin market, there was also room for its USDJ coin to emerge as a DeFi stable and DAI analog at the heart of the Just lending platform.
Next Up: TrueUSD
TRON appears to have reached a tipping point in terms of crypto acceptance. Once Tether and WBTC, courtesy of BitGo, entered the fray, it was only a matter of time until others followed. On December 16, TrueUSD revealed that its TUSD stablecoin will be coming to TRON, writing:
"We’re proud to announce TUSD will enter the next stage of its growth. Ownership of TUSD will be moving over to an Asia-based consortium that will be working with TRON to develop TUSD on Ethereum, TRON and other blockchain networks."
Stablecoins might not be as sexy as cryptocurrencies that can pump 30% in a day, but they’re a lot more practical for everyday usage, including payments, salaries, margin trading and loans. With TRON set to enter 2021 with a selection of leading fiat- and crypto-backed stablecoins onchain, it has a strong foundation for building out its decentralized ecosystem, which encompasses BitTorrent, Steemit and Dlive.
It’s taken time, but TRON has evolved into a serious layer-1 that can cut it with the best of them – and outperform on key metrics including speed and fees. Don’t be surprised if USDC fomos in and becomes the next stablecoin to pledge allegiance to TRON.