The number of Tether transactions on the Tron blockchain has surpassed Ethereum’s count for three weeks in a row as fees on Ethereum remain high. Investors and traders move towards the Tron blockchain because transactions cost a fraction of the fees required of trading on Ethereum.
The number of total weekly Tether (USDT) transactions on Ethereum over the last four weeks is approximately 1.5 million. Meanwhile, USDT transactions on Tron have grown from around 900k in mid-December, to over 2 million at the time of writing.
From the 17th to the 21st January 2021 USDT transactions on Tron grew from 240k to over 310k, which is a 70k increase across 4 days. Conversely, transactions on Ethereum for the same time frame grew from 186k to 214k, which is a 28k increase. Based on the data collected from CoinMetrics both blockchains have seen growth over the same period of time, both Tron’s growth has been much greater.
The average fee for an Ethereum transaction in dollars set a record high of above $19 a week ago but now sits just below $8. The average fee is still well under the all-time peaks of 2020 which was up to $50 or 0,041 ETH at the time of writing for a standard transfer. However, this month gas fees on Ethereum surpassed 0.015 ETH multiple times per data from Blockchair.
Given these escalating prices, other blockchains have been able to make up ground on Ethereums dominance. It’s quite logical to use Tron as it has a good level of UX, and adoption in the exchange category. But mainly, the cost of transactions on Tron is far cheaper than on Ethereum right now.
Tron’s DeFi Ecosystem
Without a doubt, in 2020 Tron was effectively playing catch up as the DeFi category exploded on Ethereum. Tron built what were effectively copies of the best Ethereum projects and these dapps started to generate substantial activity. As of the end of 2020, there were more than 17,000 unique active wallets within the Tron DeFi ecosystem daily.
Looking at the top 5 exchange dapps on Tron reveals which dapps play a vital role in the maturing Tron DeFi ecosystem.
The top 5 exchanges on Tron have generated over $42 million in transaction volume in the last 7-days.
JustSwap, an exchange protocol on Tron for exchanges between TRC20 tokens is the current leader when analyzing 7-day data ranked by transaction volume. JustSwap accumulated over $22 million in transaction volume over the last 7-days.
New entry USWAP has generated over $11 million whilst Poloni DEX, TronTrade and Zethyr Finance combined, contribute approximately $8 million.
Following the launch of its Uniswap-inspired AMM JustSwap Tron also launched its MakerDAO-inspired JUST dapp. As with MakerDAO, JUST is all about locking collateral into a smart contract and using its value to mint a stablecoin as a loan.
What’s next for Tron?
The introduction of these dapps throughout 2020 has certainly helped Tron make up valuable ground on Ethereum. More positive signs for Tron are appearing especially as we observe the number of tether transactions on the Tron blockchain surpassing Ethereum’s count for three weeks in a row.
High gas fees on Ethereum are directly benefitting Tron and its DeFi ecosystem. Users are looking for cheaper alternatives and for the time being, Tron offers one of the most viable options.
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