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【Observation】How is Tron doing? Binance Research Report: Evaluating with Data

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【Observation】How is Tron doing? Binance Research Report: Evaluating with Data

Binance Research released an interesting special report on July 2nd titled "What Does Data Say About TRON?", using various data to evaluate the polarized public chain - TRON. The following day, TRON founder Justin Sun coincidentally launched three new DeFi products.

Binance Research outlined three major findings: (1) The second-largest market for stablecoins, (2) Few valuable projects, and (3) A DApp ecosystem centered around gaming.

USDT on Tron Network Valued 2.6 Times Higher than Its Market Cap

Ranked third by market capitalization, Tether (USDT), the world's largest stablecoin, has versions issued on the Ethereum and Tron networks in addition to its original Omni blockchain. According to research by Binance, as of July 2nd this year, Tether has issued over $2.8 billion USDT on the Tron blockchain (as of the cutoff date, there are 1.3 billion USDT on Omni and 6 billion USDT on Ethereum).

Binance Research evaluates the popularity of USDT on different public blockchains. Ethereum has over 1.4 million addresses holding USDT, with a total circulation of 6 billion USDT, making it the most widely used public chain for USDT. In comparison, Tron has only 377,000 addresses holding USDT. However, it is worth noting that the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, has twice the number of addresses and transaction volume on Tron compared to Ethereum. The research also points out that USDT on Tron has a high concentration of chips, with 97.95% of the circulation held in the top 50 wealthy wallets (Tron's Super Representatives now have 27 nodes).

Comparison of Tron Stablecoin and Ethereum (Source: Binance Research)

The study indicates that due to Tron's faster transaction speed, Tron's USDT is faster and cheaper for cross-exchange arbitrage compared to Ethereum. However, support for the TRC-20 version of USDT on exchanges is not as widespread. Looking at the ratio of "circulation/transaction volume" of Tron USDT, its usage rate is still relatively low.

Interestingly, the study points out that the circulating USDT on Tron (over $2.8 billion) is much higher than Tron's market cap of approximately $1.1 billion (as of July 2nd, approximately 2.6 times higher). In contrast, Ethereum's market cap is around $25 billion, still higher than the total USDT issued on the network.

Tron's Ecosystem Dominated by a Few Star Projects

Currently, Tron mainly supports two token standards: TRC-10 (e.g., BTT) and TRC-20, which follows the same structure as Ethereum's ERC-20. Excluding USDT, only eight projects make it into the top 1,000 by market capitalization on Tron. These eight projects account for 66% of the market cap, with BitTorrent (BTT) leading the way (as of the cutoff date, BTT is ranked 88th with a market cap of approximately $67 million).

Additionally, Tron has the JUST lending platform, which includes the JST token and stablecoin USDJ. Similar to Maker (MKR) and DAI on Ethereum, users can collateralize TRX to obtain USDJ stablecoins and receive JST as interest. This is seen as a significant move by Tron into the DeFi ecosystem.

Similarly, on July 3rd, it was announced that Justin Sun will launch three new DeFi products:

1. JUST Lend, allowing Tron users to earn interest and engage in collateralized borrowing
2. JUST Swap, a decentralized exchange protocol
3. JUST BTC, a TRC20 token pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin

These developments indicate Tron's increasing involvement in the DeFi space.

DApp Ecosystem Centered Around Gambling on Tron

According to a report by data site DApp.Review, in the top 10 popular DApps on TRON in June, over half were gambling-related. Applications similar to scams were also popular. The top three gambling DApps are: 888Tron, FIGHTRON, and RocketGame, with daily transaction volumes exceeding $500,000.

Lastly, Binance Research notes that while most of Tron's marketing activities focus on the Chinese market, only 51% of the trading volume of these DApps occurs during Asian time zones based on on-chain data activities. This suggests that non-Asian time zone activities are not significantly different. The report describes Tron as a blockchain with international reach.