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TRON Becomes Primary Settlement Rail for Tether as Q2 USDT Transfers Top $2.1 Trillion

Messari’s Aug. 10 report shows rising Tether settlement demand boosting TRON fees, flagging concentration risk, U.S. compliance questions

Overview

  • Messari’s State of TRON Q2 2026 report, published Aug. 10, found TRON processed $2.1 trillion in USDT transfers in Q2 and held $87.9 billion in circulating USDT, making it the largest host chain for Tether.
  • Higher settlement flows pushed network use and revenues: average daily transactions rose to about 11.8 million, active addresses climbed to roughly 3.6 million, and protocol fees increased 15.9% to $699.4 million.
  • Stablecoin activity on TRON is heavily concentrated in USDT, which accounted for about 98.5% of the network’s stablecoins and has kept circulating USDT above $90 billion into July and early August.
  • Token economics diverged from settlement growth as TRX stayed net inflationary in Q2 with circulating supply rising to about 94.85 billion and the staking rate slipping to 48.2%, while DeFi metrics such as TVL and DEX volume declined.
  • U.S. market access expanded with restored and new listings, institutional staking and a proposed staked-TRX ETF filing, even as OFAC added 131 TRON addresses to a sanctions list and Tether froze the linked balances, raising custody and compliance questions.