Tron Surpasses Ethereum in USDT Issuance, Reclaiming Top Spot

In a major shift within the stablecoin ecosystem, Ethereum has seen its tether (USDT) issuance once again overtaken by Tron. This occurred in May 2025.

It should be noted that this tether is now USDT issued on the TRC20 basis. As of that month, tether issued on the TRC20 basis had reached a staggering $75.7 billion. This should also be the moment we should note tether issued on the ERC20 basis. As of May 2025, tether issued on the ERC20 basis had a circulation of $74.5 billion. So at this moment in time, tether on TRC20 is doing better than tether on ERC20.

As of now, the total worldwide circulation of USDT has surpassed $151.2 billion, a number that puts it in league with the gross domestic product (GDP) of the 60th largest economy in the world. And it’s worth noting that the combined issuance of USDT on the Tron and Ethereum blockchains now makes up a staggering 99.36% of all USDT that’s out there, with almost half of that coming from Tron.

Tron’s incredible path to rise in the stablecoin world has been nothing short of a marvel. When Tron launched its mainnet in May 2018, the blockchain landscape was already dominated by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Omni Layer — the original host for USDT. Tether started issuing USDT on Tron in April 2019 as the third of its layer-2 platforms, following Omni and Ethereum. Its USDT circulation on Tron was very limited at first and lagged significantly behind its competitors.

During the past years, Tron adjusted to the market demands of stablecoins and made efforts to attract them to its ecosystem, holding events and working with projects creating these kinds of assets. According to the data provided by Tron, only in 2022, there was a 224% increase in the total amount of stablecoins issued on its network, while 473% in 2021. That is why in 2025, when it comes to total stablecoins circulating in the ecosystem, Tron isn’t the runner-up anymore. It isn’t only the main network used for USDT stablecoins across the world, but it also uses the total on the network as a hedge to keep a position ahead of Ethereum.

Supporting and promoting USDT on Tron has arguably become one of the most key and profitable strategic maneuvers for the network. Tronscan indicates that in just the past week, there were over 16.01 million contract calls related to TRC20-USDT, signifying the unrelenting activity and enthusiasm surrounding this token.

Aside from circulation numbers, TRC20-USDT has also established itself as a main driver of value and utility within the Tron ecosystem. In just the last seven days, over 49.36 million TRX—roughly equivalent to $13.02 million—have been burned due to transactions related to USDT. This has constituted a staggering 96.87% of all TRX burned during that time. These figures underscore how deeply integrated and reliant Tron’s token economy is on the activity of USDT and, moreover, how it is increasingly utilizing the stablecoin to generate passive income through burning mechanisms that, at least in terms of crypto tokenomics, go some way toward ensuring a sustainable token supply.

This feedback loop — where increased usage of USDT causes more burning of TRX — really seems to help keep the value of TRX up and incentivize ongoing work with the network. I don’t know if anyone has formally identified this as a model, but it seems to work and be effective in aligning user activity with network health.

Recently, Tron announced integration with USD1, a new stablecoin launched by WLFI, a platform where Tron founder Justin Sun serves as a strategic consultant. This move pushes the ailing network further into the still nascent, semi-secret influencer world of stablecoins, in which Sun is apparently one of the main characters. On top of this, Sun has previously supported a variety of other stablecoins, such as TUSD, USDD, and USDJ. What could potentially lie behind all this Bolivar-esque support for stablecoins?

Although the exact use cases and financial applications of USD1 are still unknown, we can infer something of its structure and intent from the workings of the existing Tron protocol. Tron is a so-called public blockchain with a project vision of “decentralized internet and decentralized storage of digital assets.” Built around this public interface, Tron seeks to provide conditions under which apps can work across free and seamless customization, while all users interact in a distributed and decentralized manner.

While Tron advances aggressively in the contest for control in the stablecoin sector, its strategy of growth and efficiency appears to be bringing good dividends — so much so, that from our standpoint, it looks like Tether has reissued 4 billion USDT into circulation as of May 30, 2023.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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