TRON overtakes Ethereum in USDT as stablecoin supply hits $92.25B
TRON has overtaken Ethereum in average USDT supply during the third quarter of 2026, as its stablecoin balances and monthly active addresses have reached record quarterly averages.
- TRON held 49.49% of USDT across 12 tracked chains, averaging $90.75 billion during Q3.
- Stablecoin transfers totaled $2.18 trillion, while average stablecoin holder addresses reached 76.53 million.
- Monthly active addresses averaged 17.81 million, although activity eased toward the end of September.
- Network revenue fell 3.10% from Q2 to $693.21 million as average transaction fees declined.
Token Terminal’s Q3 report, published Nov. 2 and shared by TRON DAO, puts the network’s average stablecoin supply at $92.25 billion, up 4.18% from the previous quarter and 14.58% from a year earlier.
Across the chains covered by the report, average native stablecoin supply fell 2.41% quarter over quarter to $298.23 billion. TRON’s share reached 30.93%, gaining 1.96 percentage points from Q2 as its own balances grew against that decline.
TRON takes the USDT lead from Ethereum
Within TRON’s stablecoin total, USDT supply averaged $90.75 billion, compared with Ethereum’s $87.73 billion. The figures give TRON a $3.02 billion lead and put USDT at approximately 98.4% of its average stablecoin supply, calculated from the report’s totals.
Ethereum’s average USDT balance fell 7.59% from Q2, while TRON’s grew 4.11%, according to the report. Together, the two networks accounted for 97.33% of native USDT across the 12 chains tracked.
The lead changed hands during July. Token Terminal recorded TRON first moving ahead on July 16, briefly falling behind, then remaining ahead from July 23. By Sept. 30, TRON held $92.35 billion in USDT against Ethereum’s $86.69 billion, a quarter-end gap of $5.66 billion.
For all native stablecoins combined, TRON ended September with $93.88 billion outstanding. Its average supply has grown for three consecutive quarters, the report states.
Stablecoin holders outnumber Ethereum and Solana
TRON averaged 76.53 million stablecoin holder addresses during Q3, up 2.25% from Q2 and 11.27% year over year, according to Token Terminal.
The report’s chain comparison puts Ethereum at 26.32 million and Solana at 12.11 million. TRON’s count was nearly twice their combined 38.43 million, based on those published figures, and represented 40.45% of the total across 45 tracked chains.
Token Terminal defines holders as addresses with a nonzero native stablecoin balance and sums them across stablecoins. The metric counts addresses, rather than establishing how many individual people hold the tokens.
Transfers reached $2.18 trillion, up 4.17% from Q2 and 3.70% year over year. The report calculates that quarterly transfer volume equaled 23.67 times average supply, equivalent to the average stablecoin dollar moving once every 3.89 days.
In separate Q3 research, Nansen reported $2.2126 trillion in settlement. Its figures featured in earlier settlement coverage; Token Terminal’s $2.18 trillion is the transfer-volume series used here.
Record transactions accompany lower fees
Network transactions totaled 1.08 billion, up 0.28% from Q2 and 31.19% year over year, Token Terminal reported. Average throughput slipped 0.81% to 135.76 transactions per second because Q3 contained one more day than Q2.
Despite the higher quarterly transaction count, revenue fell to $693.21 million, down 3.10% from Q2 and 34.40% from a year earlier. Average transaction fees dropped to $0.64, a quarterly decline of 3.87% and a yearly decline of 50.20%.
The report links the yearly fee comparison to Proposal 104, which cut TRON’s Energy price from 210 sun to 100 sun on Aug. 29, 2025.
Token Terminal counts transaction fees paid through burned TRX or staking-derived Energy and Bandwidth as network revenue. Previous fee coverage explains the distinction between transfer value, network fees, and payments to TRON DAO.
Active addresses rise as US access expands
Monthly active addresses averaged 17.81 million, up 8.71% quarter over quarter and 21.86% year over year. Token Terminal measures unique addresses sending at least one transaction over a rolling 30-day period.
Activity moderated during the quarter, moving from 20.09 million at June’s close to 15.42 million on Sept. 30.
“Transaction growth outpaced the increase in active addresses over the past year,” TRON DAO said in commentary accompanying the report.
The report identifies three US access developments during Q3: Anchorage Digital added native TRX staking on July 14, Bitnomial listed TRX futures on July 27, and Canary Capital launched its Staked TRX ETF, trading under TRXS, on Sept. 9.
