Tron is popular with stablecoin users, but transaction costs have risen over the last year.
Tron has become cheaper to use after the crypto network’s community of token holders voted to slash fees by 60%, according to the blockchain’s founder Justin Sun.
Writing on X overnight, billionaire crypto entrepreneur Sun — who has a number of digital asset ventures — said the proposal would ultimately benefit users. The change took effect Friday, per the time noted in Sun’s post.
Tron is the blockchain behind TRX, the 10th biggest digital coin by total value, which has a current market cap of $31.9 billion. The Tron network is popular in particular with stablecoin users.
“For users, this fee reduction is a real benefit,” Sun said. “Cutting fees by 60% is bold and rare for any network. In the short term, Tron’s profitability will be affected, since network fees are directly reduced by 60%.”
Sun added: “However, in the long run, profitability will improve as more users and more transactions take place on the Tron network.”
Tron previously had a reputation for being a cheap blockchain. But transaction costs have spiked recently: The average price for making a transaction on the network recently stood at $1.70, but in December shot as high as $2.50, according to Token Terminal.
The Tron blockchain is popular as a payment network for stablecoins because it allows users to cheaply and quickly send the digital tokens in the decentralized finance or DeFi space, where users conduct transactions permissionlessly and without revealing their identities.
Major stablecoins USDC and USDT are available on the Tron network, as well as on other blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.
Stablecoins are popular digital tokens that are backed by non-volatile fiat currencies like dollars, euros, or the yen. The idea is that crypto traders can make quick transactions — like buying Bitcoin and other digital assets — without having to use traditional banking rails.
Data from DeFi Llama shows that the total market cap of stablecoins on Tron currently stands at over $82 billion, making it the second-largest crypto network for the tokens after Ethereum, which has a stablecoin market cap of $148.5 billion.
The total market capitalization of all stablecoins across every crypto network is $283.3 billion, meaning that Tron’s share is close to 30% of the tally.
TRX was recently trading for close to $0.34 per coin, according to CoinGecko, after dropping nearly 2% over a 24-hour period.
