TRON outpaced Ethereum in average USDT supply during the third quarter of 2026 while recording peaks on a number of network metrics, according to Token Terminal's latest quarterly report. Stablecoin balances, holder addresses, and monthly active users all reached new all-time highs during the quarter, even as network revenue moved in the opposite direction.

USDT is a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, and its distribution across chains indicates where on-chain dollar-denominated balances are held. The report tracks USDT balances across 12 networks and stablecoin holder addresses across 45 chains, covering supply, transfers, transactions, users, and revenue. Token Terminal shared the findings on X on November 2, 2026:

— Token Terminal 📊 (@tokenterminal) November 2, 2026

TRON Takes the Lead in USDT Supply

The average USDT supply on TRON stood at $90.75 billion during Q3, an increase of 4.11% over the previous quarter and 13.74% higher than a year ago. Ethereum, by comparison, averaged $87.73 billion in USDT supply over the same period, a decline of 7.59% year over year. The two networks' USDT supplies moved in opposite directions on an annual basis. That left TRON holding 49.49% of all USDT across the 12 networks monitored by Token Terminal — nearly half of the tracked supply.

TRON briefly held a narrow advantage before July 16, when its USDT supply overtook Ethereum's and stayed in front for the remainder of the quarter. The gap reflected TRON's double-digit annual growth against a year-over-year decline for Ethereum.

Stablecoin supply on the network reached a record total of $92.25 billion, an increase of approximately 4.18% compared with Q2 and 14.58% compared with the same quarter last year. The figure climbed further to $93.88 billion as of the end of September.

Stablecoin Transfers Reach $2.18 Trillion

Stablecoin activity on TRON was equally robust. The network powered $2.18 trillion worth of stablecoin transactions in Q3, an increase of 4.17% over the prior quarter. The average number of stablecoin holder addresses reached a new high of 76.53 million, representing 40.45% of total stablecoin addresses across the 45 chains tracked in the report. Both transfer value and holder count moved higher alongside supply.

Transfer velocity also remained elevated. Stablecoin transfer volume amounted to 23.67 times the average supply over the course of the quarter, meaning the average dollar of stablecoin on TRON was transferred approximately every 3.89 days.

TRON Processes 1.08 Billion Transactions

Network activity came in near record levels at 1.08 billion transactions in Q3. That represented a 31.19% increase from a year ago and marked the sixth consecutive quarter of transaction growth. Average throughput for the quarter stood at 135.76 transactions per second.

User activity expanded alongside transaction volume. TRON reported an average of 17.81 million monthly active users during the quarter, an increase of 8.71% from the second quarter and 21.86% compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Transaction growth also translated into greater per-address engagement, with each active address participating in 60.60 transactions during the quarter, up from 56.29 in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue Falls Despite Record Network Activity

Despite the record network activity, TRON's revenue declined in the third quarter of 2026, falling 3.10% from the previous quarter and 34.40% year over year to $693.21 million. The drop came primarily from lower transaction costs, which accounted for most of the decline.

Average fees on the network fell to $0.64 in August, down 50.20% from a year earlier, after TRON lowered its Energy price in the same month, according to the report's data. The combination left the network handling a larger transaction count than a year earlier while collecting less fee revenue overall, as per-transaction costs fell faster than activity grew.

Even taking the lower fees into account, Token Terminal estimated that TRON remained the largest L1/L2 network by revenue among the networks in its comparison, accounting for 93.18% of the revenue tracked in the report. A follow-up quarterly report will cover the first full quarter of activity under the reduced Energy price and will show whether the USDT supply trajectories of the two chains continued to diverge.

This article is based on reporting originally published by CryptoNinjas.