As 2025 draws to a close, the crypto market is once again shrouded in a familiar sense of anxiety: macro liquidity expectations are wavering, the hype curve of on-chain narratives is gradually flattening, and market sentiment is transitioning from the exuberance of mid-year to a more rational scrutiny. The asset volatility once driven by sentiment and hot topics is now giving way to a more fundamental question—as the short-term noise fades, which values can truly settle and endure through cycles?
Against this backdrop, the focus of market discussion has quietly shifted from "whether it can rise" to "how it can sustain." Investors and builders alike are trying to clarify where the industry's structural support will lie on the path to 2026. Will it rely on passive pushes from macro liquidity, or will it be based on real yields generated by the protocols themselves? Will it reposition within the existing landscape, or seek breakthroughs in new ecological niches?
To this end, SunnPump recently hosted an online roundtable titled "2026 is Approaching, No Lying Flat in Crypto," inviting several industry observers and builders deeply entrenched in the field to focus on the internal logic of the year-end market, the core elements of DeFi sustainability, and the position and role of TRON in the next phase. This article reviews the key insights from the discussion, attempting to outline a rational roadmap to 2026 from multiple dimensions such as capital structure and ecological evolution.
Narrative Recedes, Utility Rises: The 2026 Cycle Belongs to Mature Ecosystems with Real Demand
In the first topic of the roundtable, the guests delved into the fundamental differences between the "year-end market" and "heading towards 2026" from perspectives such as capital flows, market psychology, and structural shifts. Despite varying expressions, the consensus was clear: the year-end volatility is more like a short-term game, while the path to 2026 depends on the ability to build a long-term, sustainable value structure.
JaegerC set the tone for the discussion, likening the year-end market to "a breath" after experiencing fluctuations, a "position balancing and probing" at the trading level. He believes that the current market is transitioning from a phase driven by speculation and narratives to a new phase driven by real cash flows and asset structures. Therefore, the year-end "test" is to screen out projects qualified to enter the next long-term structure, and the core of 2026 will be a comprehensive restructuring of capital efficiency and value logic.
Anna Tangyuan's view was more straightforward and sharp. She explicitly stated that the year-end market addresses the short-term question of "whether the price can rise," relying on emotion and impulse; while 2026 addresses the survival question of "whether it can survive," relying on business models that can operate stably without subsidies.
When the discussion focused on specific ecosystems, TRON became an excellent case study. The guests unanimously agreed that TRON,凭借其在稳定币结算领域的绝对主导地位,以及由此衍生出的强大、自洽的金融生态, has entered the mature stage of "digital financial infrastructure."
Tian Tian Sweety provided solid footnotes for TRON's ecological status with a set of highly convincing on-chain data: nearly $80 billion USDT in on-chain circulation, accounting for half of the global market; daily stablecoin transfers as high as $20-24 billion, building a continuously operating value channel; the Total Value Locked (TVL) of the JUST protocol has exceeded $10.4 billion, while the overall TVL of the TRON network is close to $24 billion, depicting a financial landscape with deep capital沉淀 and a vibrant, healthy ecosystem.
She emphasized that these figures do not come from short-term incentives or hype but are naturally driven by real demands for payments, lending, and staking worldwide, forming a resilient and self-reinforcing "value circulation system." She positioned TRON as "the infrastructure brain shouldering the重任 of global stablecoins and payments," whose complete ecological matrix and absolute depth in the stablecoin track constitute an insurmountable moat.
Anna Tangyuan reinforced this judgment from the most intuitive user experience perspective. She stated that for her and many users, TRON is no longer an "investment target" whose price needs constant attention, but a handy, reliable, low-cost transfer tool, like "a built-in tool app on a phone". This characteristic of "worry-free" and "undebatable" is precisely the mark of its maturity as infrastructure, which determines its unique stability during market fluctuations.
In summary, TRON has long ceased to be a "public chain competitor" that needs to rely on market narratives to prove its value but has evolved into a critical settlement layer in the global economy for processing high-frequency, high-value transfers. The prosperous DeFi applications within its ecosystem, low transaction costs, and极致 transfer efficiency together form a business system that does not rely on short-term subsidies and possesses a powerful endogenous circulation capability. This aligns perfectly with the core logic of "heading towards 2026": building a value structure capable of weathering cycles and sustaining itself.
The Cornerstone for Weathering Bull and Bear Markets: Real Cash Flow, Stable Demand, and Endogenous Resilience
When the topic turned to "what kind of DeFi projects can truly weather cycles," the roundtable discussion moved from observing market phenomena to deconstructing the essence of projects. The guests unanimously moved beyond the obsession with "high yield" and pointed to a more resilient underlying logic. The practices and development path of the TRON ecosystem恰好 provided a concrete and vivid example.
JaegerC systematically elaborated on the core elements for weathering cycles: real cash flow and stable endogenous demand. He believes that yield must come from the protocol's own fees and interest rate spreads, not short-term speculation. Moreover, the protocol should serve the rigid demands of economic activities like lending and payments. Tian Tian Sweety held a similar view, pointing out that projects capable of weathering cycles must be "infrastructure-level," possessing strong "self-sustaining" capabilities. High TVL and risk resistance stem from real fee-based cash flow and high usage rates, not subsidies.
This logic is clearly validated in the core protocols of the TRON ecosystem. Taking JustLend DAO as an example, its protocol revenue
does not rely solely on lending spreads but is a model of diversified real yield. Its main income comes from the liquid staking service (sTRX) provided to TRX holders, which constitutes the vast majority of its total revenue; meanwhile, interest income from traditional lending markets provides a stable supplement.
Crucially, the protocol designs a direct value feedback loop: the net income generated by the protocol is regularly used to repurchase and burn its governance token, JST, on the open market. This not only makes JST a deflationary asset but also tightly binds the success of the protocol's business (real cash flow) with the long-term interests of token holders (deflationary support for token value). Therefore, regardless of market sentiment fluctuations, as long as the real on-chain demand for staking and lending persists, the protocol can not only generate sustainable cash flow but also capture and feed this value back to ecosystem participants through the deflation mechanism. This is precisely the typical characteristic of the "high-resilience" projects emphasized by JaegerC—driven by real economic activity and possessing endogenous value regression capabilities.
Anna Tangyuan通俗化 the professional logic with a series of vivid metaphors. She pointed out sharply that many high-yield projects earn "money subsidized by the project team"; once the incentives stop, people leave and the building empties. Real cycle-weathing projects are more like the convenience store downstairs or a highway—no discounts, no hype, but they持续 generate收益 based on "being used year-round," "long-term existing demand," and "being reusable." She emphasized that real yield should come from real usage, not amplified incentives.
For millions of users worldwide, using the TRON network for USDT transfers is precisely because of its practical value of being "fast" and "cheap." This high-frequency, rigidly demanded "real usage" constitutes the most solid foundation of the ecosystem. The long-term appeal of DeFi products like SUN.io within the ecosystem is also rooted in this genuine network utility and asset沉淀, not temporary subsidy amplification. In November 2025, TRON's protocol revenue exceeded $204 million this month, achieving a断层式领先 position in the revenue rankings of major public chains. This market performance is a direct result of its massive real asset沉淀 and continuous network utility, demonstrating the underlying ecosystem's solid health and value capture ability.
Synthesizing the guests' views, a DeFi ecosystem capable of weathering bull and bear markets must evolve into an organic entity in the digital economy that provides real value, meets stable demand, and possesses endogenous resilience. The TRON ecosystem, by focusing on and彻底打通 the core rigid demand of "efficient global value flow," has taken the lead in completing the leap from a single public chain to a comprehensive financial infrastructure. It has built an organic whole centered on massive stablecoin circulation (real demand and cash flow) and a high-throughput, low-cost public chain (reusable infrastructure), naturally衍生出 lending, trading, staking, and other rich DeFi scenarios. In this system, the value capture of the protocols is closely linked to the practical value of the network, forming a life form with powerful internal circulation and anti-cycle resilience. This is not only the structural answer for the TRON ecosystem to weather cycles but also provides a clear and powerful reference for the industry to explore sustainable development paths.
