The Tron blockchain receives millions of dollars in transaction fees every day. Why did the developers decide to reduce potential revenues?
The total revenue of the Tron blockchain network, founded by entrepreneur Justin Sun, has fallen to an annual low. This happened against the backdrop of a nearly twofold decrease in transaction fees. Despite this, the Tron network remains one of the most profitable and, at the same time, one of the most expensive to use in the world.
Since September, the total weekly revenue of the Tron blockchain has been around $9 million, which is the lowest since August 2024, according to Defillama. Throughout 2025, revenues ranged from $12 million to $14 million. The level of $8-9 million remained unchanged since the beginning of 2023 and for most of 2024.
The drop in revenue is due to the fact that on August 29, the Tron blockchain implemented update “#789,” designed to reduce transaction costs for users. Since then, the average transaction fee has been around $0.8, which is half the amount before the update.
Tron has long been one of the largest cryptocurrencies, ranking ninth in terms of capitalization on Coinmarkecap. As of September 15, the native TRX token was valued at $32.6 billion. The price of TRX was $0.345, which puts the crypto asset in 11th place on the list of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies in 2025 with an indicator of 35%.
Dominant network
Despite a significant reduction in fees, Tron remains one of the most profitable blockchain networks on the market. For example, Ethereum’s weekly revenue is $3-4 million, Solana’s is about $1 million, and BNB Chain’s is about $0.3 million.
This is likely due to the fact that Tron has the highest fees among its competitors. Prior to the Tron update, for most of 2025, Tron competed with Bitcoin for the title of most expensive network.
Even with the halving, the average weekly transaction fee is $0.8. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s average is around $0.5. BNB Chain’s is below $0.05, and Solana’s is around $0.005, according to TokenTermonal as of mid-September.
“In the short term, Tron’s profitability will suffer as network fees will be reduced by 60%. However, in the long term, profitability will increase as the number of users and transactions on the Tron network grows,” Justin Sun wrote on X about the update affecting the reduction in fees.
The impact of stablecoins
Tron is almost the only blockchain on the market that shows a pronounced dependence on the USDT stablecoin issued by Tether, which has become a key driver of activity on the network. According to Tronscan, about 40% of all transactions on the blockchain involve USDT. Currently, just under half of the total global volume of USDT (TRC20 standard) or $82 billion (42% of the total USDT supply) is circulating on the network.
From 2021 to the end of 2023, Tron accounted for about 60% of all USDT transactions relative to other blockchain networks. However, after that, the trend began to shift downward.
The same pattern can be seen in terms of transfer volume, where Tron’s share fell from 50% to 34% during the same period, with Ethereum becoming the leader with a share of almost 40%.
If we compare the fees for USDT transfers on individual networks, the average transfer fee on Tron was more than $4.8 before the update, according to the fee monitoring service Gasfeesnow. After the update, the fee on Tron decreased by about 20% to an average of $4.2. In Ethereum, this figure was $0.027, in BNB Chain it is $0.0026, and in Solana it is less than $0.002.
For comparison, until mid-2023, the fee for transferring USDT to Tron did not rise above $1.
This has created a rather contradictory situation, where Tron is a highly capitalized crypto project among the world’s top ten leaders in terms of capitalization. Its revenues have significantly exceeded those of competing blockchains for months. At the same time, its token is one of the fastest growing in the crypto market. However, for the second year in a row, the network is losing its dominant share in the USDT market as the most widely used stablecoin.
