Space Review | The Competition for Stablecoins Heats Up, How TRON Builds the Strongest Ecological Moat for Stablecoins

The crypto market in September is once again heating up. The leading decentralized derivatives protocol Hyperliquid has prominently launched its native stablecoin USDH, announcing the entry of another strong player into the arena.

In the past, the stablecoin sector was a simple script of the "duopoly" between USDT and USDC. But today, the landscape has completely changed. Stablecoins are no longer just "tool coins" used by traders to avoid volatility; their identity has evolved into the underlying liquidity blood of the entire crypto financial system.

When we examine the entire stablecoin ecosystem, TRON is an absolutely indispensable presence. With its high throughput and low fee network characteristics, TRON has long become the main battlefield for the issuance and circulation of stablecoins, especially USDT. Meanwhile, the TRON ecosystem has also laid out the decentralized stablecoin USDD and deeply integrated it with the compliant stablecoin USD1, forming a complete stablecoin matrix that covers payment settlement, decentralization, and compliance needs, making it a crucial pillar in the current stablecoin landscape.

So why have stablecoins become the core infrastructure that all top protocols are vying for? Is the future heading towards a multi-dimensional coexistence, or will it once again form a monopoly? On September 16, during a special roundtable AMA co-hosted by SunPump and 1783DAO, several industry veterans engaged in deep discussions on this topic. This article will take you through the exciting viewpoints and intellectual collisions from this event.

Why are stablecoins the battleground of the Crypto world?

"The most fascinating aspect of the stablecoin sector is that it is essentially one of the two most profitable businesses in the entire crypto field, just like exchanges," Block Tiger pointed out incisively during the roundtable discussion. "Issuing stablecoins is akin to establishing a central bank in the crypto realm." Taking the stablecoin ecosystem of TRON as an example, the USDT issued on the TRON network has long accounted for over 50%, firmly holding the global top position, and is widely used for high-frequency transfers and cross-border payments, which fully demonstrates the immense value of the stablecoin business. Block Tiger finally highlighted the **key factors for the success of the stablecoin business: ** user scale and use cases, both are indispensable**.

Amber analyzed from a business essence perspective: "Stablecoins are like a faucet; as long as you grasp the settlement aspect, you can continuously generate cash flow. The closer the business is to settlement, the more profitable it is." She pointed out that, in addition to the obvious interest income, stablecoins also contain the enormous potential to replay all traditional financial playbooks on-chain.

Web3 Miya supplemented from practical application scenarios: "Stablecoins are indispensable because they are the best bridge connecting the traditional world and the crypto world." Comrade Jianguo also noted that the current annualized returns of 10-12% provided by stablecoins are an extremely attractive entry opportunity for traditional capital.

In this chess game revolving around profitability, strategic positioning, user base, and regulatory compliance, various forces are fiercely competing. Whether it is new players like Hyperliquid or veterans like TRON that have built a complete ecosystem, all are striving to find breakthroughs in this challenging and opportunity-filled red ocean.

Stablecoin competition intensifies, multi-dimensional coexistence or winner-takes-all?

Regarding the current competitive landscape, roundtable guests unanimously believe that the stablecoin market will present a pattern of multi-coin coexistence and multiple oligopolies in the future, rather than an absolute winner-takes-all scenario. K1KO made a clever analogy using the history of internet development: "Just like in the mobile payment era, WeChat and Alipay occupy 90% of the market, but Douyin and JD.com also want to do payments; in the browser field, there are Chrome and Firefox, but also Quark and UC Browser." He pointed out that different vertical scenarios will have their own kings. Amber agreed and added, "For now, USDT is still the dominant player due to its scale and the depth of derivatives that have formed usage inertia, but there will be a leading stablecoin in different scenarios."

In this multi-dimensional ecosystem, the TRON ecosystem has built a complete three-layer stablecoin strategic system, forming a complete product matrix covering payment settlement, decentralization, and compliance needs. This multi-layered layout perfectly aligns with the future trend of layered and scenario-based coexistence in the stablecoin market.

• First Layer: USDT------The core infrastructure dominating the market

The TRON network has become the primary issuance and circulation network for USDT. Data from September 5 shows that the market value of stablecoins on the TRON chain exceeds $83.3 billion, with the issuance of TRC20-USDT exceeding 82.6 billion, firmly holding the global top position. Currently, the number of accounts holding USDT on the TRON chain exceeds 68 million, fully demonstrating its adoption level globally and highlighting the leading position of the TRON network as the core infrastructure for stablecoins.

With TRON's low fees and high throughput network characteristics, TRC20-USDT has become the preferred choice for many cross-border payment and daily transaction scenarios, widely used in financial trusts, communication transfers, travel settlements, and cross-border payments, and has gained support from an increasing number of mainstream platforms.

• Second Layer: USDD------Innovative breakthrough of decentralized stablecoins

As a "dark horse" in the decentralized stablecoin market, USDD has maintained long-term stable operation and rapid growth since its launch. Its iterative 2.0 version went live in January this year, achieving a circulation volume of over 100 million within two weeks, showing a rapid growth momentum. Currently, the supply of USDD 2.0 has surpassed 500 million, with an APY (annual percentage yield) as high as 20%.

On September 8, USDD was officially natively deployed on Ethereum, launching a reward activity with up to 12% APY on the Ethereum mainnet. This move marks the beginning of USDD's expansion into a multi-chain ecosystem, injecting new vitality into the decentralized stablecoin market.

• Third Layer: Integrating USD1------Strategic layout for compliant development

USD1, a compliant dollar stablecoin issued by the Trump family-related project WLFI, has rapidly gained market recognition since its launch in March this year due to its "high transparency and strong compliance." As of September 17, the circulation of USD1 has exceeded $2.6 billion, making it the sixth-largest stablecoin globally.

It is noteworthy that the TRON ecosystem has completed the full process deployment of USD1 from technical access to DeFi infrastructure integration. On June 11 of this year, USD1 officially began minting on the TRON network, with an initial minting volume of 1,000, marking the formal integration of USD1 into the TRON ecosystem. On July 7, the one-stop decentralized exchange SUN.io in the TRON ecosystem was the first to launch multiple USD1 trading pairs, providing users with convenient trading channels. Shortly after, on August 19, the lending protocol JustLend DAO fully supported USD1 deposits and loans, greatly expanding the yield application scenarios for this stablecoin.

As of September 17, the issuance of USD1 on the TRON chain has surpassed 54.47 million, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $350 million, and the number of holding addresses exceeding 20,000, with a total of over 88,000 transactions on-chain. This series of data fully demonstrates the rapid growth of USD1's liquidity and user acceptance within the TRON ecosystem, showcasing its immense development potential as a new generation compliant stablecoin, injecting diverse vitality into the TRON stablecoin ecosystem.

Through this three-layer stablecoin system, TRON has formed a powerful synergy: USDT provides liquidity and market coverage, USDD drives decentralized innovation, and USD1 meets compliance needs. This multi-layered layout allows TRON to maintain competitiveness under different market environments and regulatory requirements, providing users with comprehensive stablecoin solutions.

As the stablecoin market continues to develop, the strategic layout of the TRON ecosystem is showing increasing value. Whether it is the entry of new players like Hyperliquid USDH or the inclusion of traditional financial institutions, the ecological advantages established by TRON have positioned it favorably in the future stablecoin competition.