Tron Q4 2025 Analysis: Network Performance and Market Metrics

Tron maintained its position as the second-largest blockchain infrastructure for stablecoin settlement in Q4 2025, hosting over $80 billion in $USDT supply and processing more than $20 billion in daily transaction volume.

The network averaged 2.8 million daily active users, up from 2.6 million in Q3, while handling 10.2 million average daily transactions. Reports from Arkham, CoinDesk Data, and Messari analyzed Tron's performance, highlighting its dominance in peer-to-peer payments and stablecoin activity despite a 38% quarter-over-quarter decline in network revenue to $655.6 million.

The quarter showed mixed results, with strong user growth and stablecoin adoption offset by decreased revenue and total value locked in decentralized finance protocols.

How Did Tron's Financial Metrics Perform?

Tron's financial performance in Q4 showed contraction across several key metrics. The $TRX circulating market cap decreased 14.8% quarter-over-quarter from $31.6 billion to $26.9 billion, marking the first quarterly decline in three years. Despite this decrease, $TRX improved its market cap ranking among all tokens (excluding stablecoins) from ninth to eighth place.

Network revenue totaled $655.6 million in Q4, down 38% from $1.1 billion in Q3. When measured in $TRX rather than USD, revenue decreased 31.2% from 3.2 billion to 2.2 billion $TRX. This decline was driven partly by a 14.9% decrease in token price during the quarter.

Understanding Tron's Revenue Model

Tron generates revenue through a resource model that distributes Bandwidth and Energy to stakers. Users who stake $TRX receive these resources, allowing them to transfer tokens and execute smart contracts without direct fees.

When users consume more computing power than their allocated resources allow, they must pay transaction fees in $TRX, which are then burned. Network revenue equals the total $TRX burned through these excess resource consumption fees.

The circulating supply of $TRX increased slightly in Q4, from 94.67 billion to 94.69 billion tokens, representing a 0.027% increase. This marked a reversal of the deflationary trend maintained for many previous quarters.

The network mints approximately 3.9 million $TRX daily as block and vote rewards for Super Representatives and stakers, meaning the supply decreases only when daily burns exceed this amount.

What Were Tron's User Activity and Network Metrics?

Tron demonstrated strong user growth across multiple metrics in Q4. Average daily transactions increased 13.7% quarter-over-quarter from 8.9 million to 10.2 million. Average daily active addresses grew 12.3% from 2.5 million to 2.8 million, while average daily new addresses rose 13.8% from 194,919 to 221,818. Of all active addresses in Q4, 7.88% were new addresses.

The network maintained a 78% share of peer-to-peer transactions and captured 56% of global retail-sized $USDT transfers under $1,000. Since 2021,

Tron has recorded compound annual growth rates between 54% and 60%. Year-over-year comparisons showed daily transaction volume rising 45.9%, transactions increasing 11.2%, and active addresses growing 9.8%.

Geographic data by Arkham revealed heavy concentration in Asia, accounting for nearly $341 billion in annualized transaction volume. Strong adoption in emerging markets including Turkey, Indonesia, and India highlighted Tron's appeal in regions where low-cost, efficient infrastructure is essential.

How Did DeFi Performance Change on Tron?

Decentralized finance activity on Tron showed mixed results in Q4. Total value locked (TVL) denominated in $TRX decreased 16.2% quarter-over-quarter from 18.5 billion to 15.5 billion. When measured in USD, TVL fell 28.7% from $6.2 billion to $4.4 billion.

Tron dropped one position to become the sixth-highest network by TVL at $4.6 billion, ranking behind Base ($4.7 billion), BNB Chain ($6.9 billion), Bitcoin ($7.0 billion), Solana ($8.9 billion), and Ethereum ($71.6 billion).

Top DeFi Protocols Performance

JustLend, the largest protocol by TVL, saw its total value locked decrease 25.4% quarter-over-quarter from $5.0 billion to $3.7 billion. However, total borrow volume on JustLend increased 37.6% from $154.3 million to $212.3 million. In October 2025, JustLend DAO launched a deflationary initiative allocating net protocol revenue to recurring JST token buybacks and burns, completing $17 million in buybacks as of early Q1 2026.

$SUN experienced a 52.6% TVL decrease from $1.0 billion to $495.2 million. The protocol comprises three different automated market makers. By the end of Q4, V1 TVL was $56.7 million (11.9% of total), V2 TVL was $244.6 million (51.3%), and V3 TVL was $175.7 million (36.8%). Together, JustLend and $SUN represent 99.7% of DeFi TVL on Tron.

Decentralized Exchange Volume Trends

Overall DEX activity on Tron declined in Q4, with average daily volumes decreasing 31.5% quarter-over-quarter. $SUN V3 continued to dominate Tron DEX trading, though its average daily volume decreased 30.8% to $79 million while maintaining the majority share of total volume.

$SUN V2 volumes decreased 17.3% from $6 million to $5 million, and $SUN V1 activity dropped 85.5% to $0.5 million. $SUN V3 accounted for 93.6% of all DEX volume on Tron in Q4.

SunX (formerly SunPerp) completed its first full quarter with over $25 billion in total cumulative trading volume since launch. The perpetual futures exchange employs a hybrid model combining offchain execution for speed with onchain settlement for security, enabling zero gas fee trading and millisecond-order matching.

What Happened With Stablecoins on Tron?

The stablecoin market cap on Tron increased 7.0% quarter-over-quarter from $76.4 billion to $81.8 billion. This growth was primarily driven by a 6.9% increase in $USDT, which reached an $80.9 billion market cap, representing 99.1% of Tron's stablecoin supply. Notably, 42.4% of all $USDT in circulation exists on Tron, making it Tether's most active settlement layer.

The second-largest stablecoin, USDD, grew 15.0% quarter-over-quarter from $464.7 million to $534.2 million, reaching 457,493 accounts (adding 927 holders in Q4). USD1, World Liberty Financial USD, launched on Tron on July 16, 2025, and had already accumulated 101,655 holders (adding 24,957 holders in Q4).

Average daily $USDT onchain transfer volume maintained upward growth, increasing 4.9% quarter-over-quarter from $22.7 billion to $23.8 billion. This metric measures the dollar value of stablecoins moving onchain, not just DEX-based smart contract interactions.

What Ecosystem Developments Occurred in Q4?

Tron's ecosystem expansion included several strategic integrations and technical upgrades. Key collaborations included Revolut for protocol staking and stablecoin remittances, $TRX launching on Base for cross-chain accessibility, and Kalshi enabling direct $TRX and $USDT deposits and withdrawals for event-based trading.

The Graph began providing developers access to pre-indexed blockchain data, while $USDT on Tron received clearance from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) for regulated use. These integrations expanded Tron's reach into institutional and regulated environments.

Technical upgrades included implementing TIP-6780 to increase alignment with Ethereum's EIP-6780 and maintain behavioral consistency with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The network deployed Java-Tron 4.8.1 upgrade on the Nile testnet to enhance performance, security, and EVM compatibility.

Intent-based transaction volume surged to $449 million in Q4, representing an 899% quarter-on-quarter increase and positioning Tron as the third-largest ecosystem for intent-based activity after Ethereum and Solana.

Conclusion

Tron processed 10.2 million average daily transactions in Q4 2025 with 2.8 million daily active users, maintaining its position as the second-largest blockchain infrastructure for stablecoin settlement. The network hosts $80.9 billion in $USDT supply, representing 42.4% of all circulating $USDT, and processes $23.8 billion in average daily stablecoin transfer volume.

Despite strong user growth metrics and stablecoin adoption, the network experienced a 38% quarter-over-quarter revenue decline to $655.6 million and a 28.7% decrease in DeFi TVL to $4.4 billion. JustLend maintains $3.7 billion in TVL, while SunX processed over $25 billion in cumulative trading volume during its first full quarter.

Tron's resource model enables fee-free transactions for stakers with sufficient Bandwidth and Energy allocations, burning $TRX when users exceed their resources. The network continues to serve emerging markets with low-cost payment infrastructure, capturing 78% of peer-to-peer transactions and 56% of retail $USDT transfers under $1,000.

Resources

1. Tron on X: Posts (January, 2026)

2. Press release by Tron: TRON Network Tops $83B in Stablecoin Supply, Processes $20B Daily; CoinDesk, Messari and Arkham Reports Show

3. Messari report: State of TRON Q4 2025

4. Tron on DeFiLlama: Tron ecosystem analytics