Hot Tokens Learning Week 4: 2025 TRON Ecosystem Boom — TRON Solidifies Leadership in Stablecoin Transfers

Overview

In 2025, the TRON ecosystem witnessed rapid development, focusing on interoperability, security and real-world adoption.

SUN.io is TRON’s first one-stop DeFi platform and supports stablecoin swaps (low slippage), token swaps, earn with pending orders, staking and community governance.

BitTorrent (BTT) is the world’s largest decentralized P2P file-sharing protocol.

JUST (JST) is a DeFi governance and utility token on the TRON blockchain. Its core platform is JustLend DAO, the first official decentralized lending protocol on TRON.

Steem is an open-source blockchain protocol capable of storing social content and distributing tokens based on the Proof-of-Brain algorithm.

TRX

Project Introduction

TRON (TRX) is a decentralized blockchain platform founded by Justin Sun in 2017, designed to build the infrastructure for a “decentralized internet”. Currently, TRON has become a dominant network for stablecoin transfers, capturing a significant share of the global stablecoin market. Its ecosystem primarily focuses on DeFi, dApps, NFTs and cross-chain interoperability.

Ecosystem Highlights

In 2025, the TRON ecosystem witnessed rapid development, focusing on interoperability, security and real-world adoption.

Network Upgrade: The GreatVoyage v4.8.1 mainnet upgrade occurred in November 2025, enhancing EVM compatibility and zk-SNARK verification, and anchoring Bitcoin security via LayerEdge.

Cross-Chain Integration: In December, TRON integrated with Base (Coinbase’s L2), enabling direct bridging of TRX; THORChain enabled native TRX/USDT swaps across 30+ chains; integration with Kalshi supports TRX/USDT deposits and withdrawals.

Stablecoins and Real-World Use Cases: The UAE approved TRON-based USDT as a regulated token; TRON partnered with RealOpen to support USDT-based real estate settlements, with daily transfer volumes reaching billions.

Community Views

Overall sentiment in the community leans neutral to bullish, acknowledging TRON’s real-world adoption but expressing mixed views on centralization and the founder’s influence: Bullish Views: Many highlight TRON’s dominance in stablecoin transfers, low fees and high TPS, and genuine user growth (discussions on Reddit’s r/Tronix mention all-time highs (ATH) and long-term holding through 2050; on X the focus is on cross-chain integration, real-world use cases (such as Kalshi and real estate settlements), and potential price breakouts with targets of $0.30 or higher.

Concerns: Some criticize Justin Sun’s management style and centralization risks, noting that TRX price performance has lagged behind the network’s growth (with Q4 being the weakest quarter), although whale accumulation suggests continued confidence.

Overall Sentiment: Active discussions about DeFi TVL, deflationary proposals and TRON’s role as a “global settlement layer” on Reddit and X underline optimism for a bullish 2025–2026 cycle, while reminding participants of volatility risks.

SUN

Project Introduction

SUN.io is TRON’s first one-stop DeFi platform and supports stablecoin swaps (low slippage), token swaps, earn with pending orders, staking and community governance. The platform is similar to Curve DAO’s CRV or Ellipsis’s EPS, emphasizing community-driven development and decentralized governance. SUN is positioned as the ‘value capture’ token of the TRON DeFi ecosystem, benefiting from TRON’s stablecoin dominance, with over $80 billion in USDT in circulation, as well as its high TPS and low-fee advantages.

Ecosystem Highlights

In 2025, the SUN ecosystem focused on deflationary dynamics, cross-chain support and meme/DeFi integration, with platform revenue driving buybacks and burns.

Ongoing Buybacks and Burns: Since 2021, over 650 million SUN have been burned (3.3% of the total supply); in November 2025, an additional 2.15 million SUN were burned, bringing the cumulative total to 650.7 million SUN. Revenue is generated from SunSwap (V2/V3) and SunPump, and is used for quarterly buybacks and permanent token burns to support deflation.

SunPump Meme Platform: Since its launch in 2024, SunPump witnessed rapid growth and has become a leading meme token launch platform in TRON in 2025, generating over 50,000 tokens and millions of TRX in revenue. Although there are concerns about market saturation, incentive programs supported by Justin Sun have driven the launch of new projects.

Platform Upgrades & Integrations: SunSwap V3 centralized liquidity to lead trading volume, integrated Binance Wallet dApp in July 2025 to increase accessibility, and supported new stablecoin pairs like USD1 to increase the DeFi liquidity.

TRON Ecosystem Synergy: It benefits from the TRON mainnet upgrade (v4.8.1, enhancing EVM compatibility), cross-chain integrations (such as THORChain and deBridge) and growth in stablecoins. While SunPerp/SunX (perpetual DEXes) operate independently, they strengthen the overall trading ecosystem.

Community Views

Community views on SUN are neutral to optimistic, with recognition of deflationary mechanics and TRON DeFi growth, though some are divided on centralization and price performance.

Bullish views: Many are optimistic about the continued token burn (with over 650 million $SUN already burned) and the expansion of the TRON ecosystem (e.g., SunPump, stablecoin TVL growth), viewing SUN as the “flagship DeFi token on TRON”. Reddit/X discussions emphasize buybacks supporting price and veSUN yields attracting long‑term holders; some forecasts predict a rebound with the TRON bull market in 2025–2026 (targets of $0.03+).

Concerns: Critics note lagging price performance (high volatility in 2025 and strong market influence); Justin Sun’s significant influence is seen by some as a centralization risk; meme saturation has led to more short‑term speculation and relatively low governance participation.

Overall sentiment: The community is active around burn updates and platform integrations; CoinMarketCap sentiment polls show a bullish bias (79% optimistic), but with warnings about volatility. Many see SUN as a “value reservoir” for TRON, remaining bullish over the long term, while noting that near-term performance depends on a broader recovery across the TRON ecosystem.

BTT

Project Introduction

BitTorrent (BTT) is the world’s largest decentralized P2P file-sharing protocol, created by Bram Cohen in 2001 and integrated with TRON after its acquisition in 2018. BTT is a TRC-20 utility token (original TRC-10) designed to incentivize bandwidth and storage sharing via tokenization to enhance online efficiency.

Ecosystem Highlights

In 2025, the BTT ecosystem prioritized PoS upgrades, storage expansion and cross-chain liquidity.

BTTC 2.0 Upgrade: Around June to July, BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) shifted to Proof-of-Stake, introduced BTT staking with competitive yields (the highest APY reaching 10.24%), and enhanced cross-chain compatibility (TRON/Ethereum/BNB) with more than 7,000 TPS.

BTFS Milestones: Total storage capacity exceeds 800 PB with over 2 million nodes globally. To date, the network has processed more than 196 million storage contracts and over 2.15 million monthly transactions. BTFS’s v4.0 upgrade optimizes data sharding and node incentives and adds support for AI data storage, enhancing performance and scalability.

Cross‑Chain & Liquidity: BTTC has handled over $1.63 billion in total cross‑chain volume in 2025, with TRON accounting for approximately $917.8 million. BTTC continues to support AI‑native asset bridging, and BTT has been listed on the Bithumb exchange, boosting access to the Korean market.

Community Views

The community’s overall sentiment toward BTT is neutral to optimistic, recognizing infrastructure growth but showing divergence on price and supply issues: Bullish Views: Many are optimistic about real adoption of BTFS (800 PB storage, AI potential), high staking APY (10%+) and cross‑chain bridging. X/Reddit discussions emphasize the DePIN narrative, 2025 upgrades (e.g., PoS), and TRON synergies, with some predicting a rebound in 2026 with higher price targets.

Concerns: Critics point to massive token supply (990T) causing dilution, lagging price performance (98% below the 2021 all‑time high), and centralization risk tied to Justin Sun. Some view BTT as a “cheap lottery ticket” with high short‑term volatility.

Overall Sentiment: Disscussions on staking updates and BTFS milestones are active on X; community sentiment on Twitter is neutral‑to‑bullish (43% bullish). Reddit discussions contrast practical use vs. speculation, with many viewing BTT as a “quiet accumulation” asset — optimistic about its long-term potential, yet mindful of regulatory and market risks.

JST

Project Introduction

JUST (JST) is a DeFi ecosystem governance and utility token on the TRON blockchain, launched by Justin Sun’s team in 2020. The core platform is JustLend DAO and TRON’s first official decentralized lending protocol enables users to supply assets to earn interest and borrow against collateral. It also supports multiple assets including TRX, USDT and USDD.

Ecosystem Highlights

In 2025, the JST ecosystem is focused on deflationary mechanics, liquidity enhancement and TRON synergy, with JustLend DAO as the core growth driver.

Buybacks & Burns: Executed quarterly — in October, Phase 1 burned 559  million JST (about 5.6% of the total supply, worth $17.7 million). In November, USDJ redemptions ended at 95% completion, reallocating resources toward USDD, with ongoing use of 30% of protocol revenue (lending fees and USDD profit) for buybacks and burns.

Liquidity & Listings: In April, DWF Labs became an official market maker, improving JST liquidity. JST was listed on exchanges including Kraken and HashKey Global, while Bithumb also added new JST trading pairs.

Community Views

The community’s overall sentiment on JST is neutrally optimistic, recognizing deflationary dynamics and TRON DeFi strength but expressing concerns about price lag and centralization:

Bullish Views: Many are optimistic about ongoing burns (over 5% of the supply reduced in 2025), JustLend TVL growth ($7.6 billion), and support from Justin Sun. X/Reddit discussions highlight buyback support for rebounds and governance potential, with some forecasting a rise (targets $0.08+) in 2025–2026 along with the bullish TRON market.

Concerns: Criticisms include price volatility, dilution from large supply, centralization risk linked to Justin Sun and short‑term speculation with low governance participation.

Overall Sentiment: Disscussions on burn updates, TVL milestones and events are active on X; CoinMarketCap sentiment skews bullish (mostly optimistic). Many view JST as a “TRON DeFi value capture” asset, positive in the long term but cautious about market risks and the need for a broader TRON ecosystem recovery.

STEEM

Steem is an open-source blockchain protocol capable of storing social content and distributing tokens based on the Proof-of-Brain algorithm. As one of the fastest and highest‑throughput blockchains in the world, Steem supports a range of user-oriented applications built on its protocol, including busy.org, d.tube, dlive.io, steemit.com and dsound.audio.