Tron Ousts Ethereum in USDT Showdown: DeFi Drama Heats Up

by

In the grand parade of DeFi, stablecoins are the opening volley in the great game. The logic is simple: networks that have more stablecoins locked on-chain enjoy liquidity deep enough to make trading, lending, and borrowing glide along like a well-oiled chauffeur-driven brougham.

Notably, with USDT prowling at about 60% of the stablecoin market, the networks that harbour it stand on sturdier ice. When you cast a gimlet eye over the L1s, they’re all plotting around this advantage as if it were an especially clever card in their vest pocket.

According to DeFiLlama, TRON has officially overtaken Ethereum in USDT dominance, carting off 44.97% to ETH’s 44.56%. A tidy reminder that stablecoins are the new battlegrounds, and the battlegrounds do rather love a good skirmish.

Zooming out, TRON’s growing USDT share is even more obvious. Over the past month, TRX’s USDT supply jumped by 3.62%, hitting 83.49 billion. All the while Ethereum saw a 5.6% dip over the same period, slipping to 82.74 billion.

What makes this interesting is the timing. TRON’s USDT growth arrives in a risk-off market, where the big players are correcting their hats. Ethereum, for instance, slithered down 15.36% over the month to multi-month lows.

By comparison, TRX has limited its losses to 2.6%, raising the question – is TRON positioning itself as a more resilient DeFi hub, one that can weather the volatility better than ETH thanks to its growing stablecoin base?

TRON Joins the DeFi Express in the Stablecoin Derby

Liquidity is the true motor of DeFi dominance.

Analysts are dubbing it a “stablecoin war” between L1s. TRON is making moves, grabbing more USDT dominance, but Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) of $58 billion still dwarfs TRON’s $4 billion.

In other words, Ethereum remains the go-to hub for overall “liquidity.” That said, locked TRX just hit a record 46.2 billion, or 48% of the total supply – a sign that TRON is quietly building a strong and resilient DeFi base.

By contrast, Ethereum’s locked supply sits at just around 30%.

From a technical perspective, TRON’s higher staking rate reduces circulating supply pressure, helping it hold up better in volatile markets. At the same time, more stablecoins are flowing through its ecosystem.

Together, high staking and USDT liquidity create a flywheel-staked tokens cap volatility, while stablecoin dominant flows pull in more users. As a result, TRON is quietly becoming the DeFi rail, with Justin Sun seemingly at the throttle.

Final Thoughts

  • TRON captured 44.97% of USDT vs. Ethereum’s 44.56%, a wink from the stablecoins that DeFi is paying attention to.
  • With 48% of TRX locked and rising USDT flows, TRON is spinning a DeFi flywheel that cools volatility and attracts users.

Read More

2026-02-06 08:17