TRON DAO has increased its artificial intelligence investment fund tenfold—from $100 million to $1 billion—aiming to back and acquire early-stage startups building infrastructure for the emerging “agentic economy.”
Announced on Monday, the expanded fund will target four key areas: AI agent identity systems, stablecoin-powered payment rails, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and developer tools for autonomous financial systems.
The move builds on TRON DAO’s long-term outlook first outlined in 2023, which anticipates stablecoins becoming the primary medium of exchange between AI agents, serving as a natural payment layer for AI-assisted users, alongside the growth of tokenized equity.
Blockchains race toward agentic AI
TRON joins a growing list of ecosystems investing in the intersection of AI and crypto, particularly around agent-driven payment systems. Networks like Solana and Base have also expanded efforts in this space, alongside major players such as Visa, Stripe, and World.
In September, the Ethereum Foundation entered the race with its “dAI Team,” an initiative designed to position Ethereum as the preferred settlement and coordination layer for AI agents and the broader machine economy.
This approach differs from TRON’s strategy, as Ethereum is focusing more on trust and coordination infrastructure, rather than directly building out payment rails and application-layer systems for agentic AI.
TRON scaling to support AI-driven economy, says Justin Sun
TRON says its network is well positioned for the emerging agentic economy, citing more than 370 million user accounts, over $21 billion in daily transaction volume, and upwards of $85 billion in circulating Tether.
TRON founder Justin Sun previously noted that many AI agent use cases depend on high volumes of small, frequent transactions—requiring networks that are both fast and low-cost.
He pointed out that TRON processes transactions with average confirmation times of around three seconds, compared to roughly 12 seconds on Ethereum, making it better suited for high-frequency activity, according to data from Arkham.
On scalability, Sun emphasized that the real challenge lies in supporting a transition from limited AI applications to widespread machine-to-machine commerce.
“To support this shift, infrastructure is beginning to take shape across the ecosystem,” he added, highlighting a newly launched AI agent framework on TRON called AINFT, designed to help developers build and deploy autonomous agents.
