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Founded in September 2017, the TRON blockchain has experienced significant growth since its Mainnet launch in May 2018.
Until recently, TRON hosted the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which currently exceeds $86 billion.
As of April 2026, the TRON blockchain has recorded over 376 million in total user accounts, more than 13 billion in total transactions, and over $27 billion in total value locked (TVL), based on TRONSCAN.
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Bullish Shows Potential as Tokenization Powerhouse - Bullish (BLSH) shares rose over 11% following its $4.2 billion agreement to acquire transfer agent Equiniti.
Robinhood and Bitstamp Say Banks Are Ready To Go On-chain - Executives from Ondo Finance, Robinhood-owned Bitstamp, and Babylon Labs stated that Wall Street's shift to crypto is now focused on implementation ("how to build") rather than fundamental understanding.
OKX Joins IPO Frenzy - OKX is launching perpetual futures contracts linked to private companies, including OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic, allowing synthetic pre-IPO speculation.
Get a complete view of the largest gainers, losers, and topics with Messari’s Signals Tracker, based on mindshare and sentiment.
Asset | Mindshare% | Current Sentiment | 1 Week Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Stacks | 0.28% | Neutral | ⬆️ |
Virtuals Protocol | 0.29% | Bullish🐂 | ⬆️ |
Toncoin | 0.99% | Bullish🐂 | ⬆️ |
Cosmos | 0.18% | Neutral | ⬇️ |
Tron | 0.44% | Bullish🐂 | ⬆️ |
Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
By: Eric Manoukian · @CryptoRick98 · Research Analyst
Within days of the rsETH exploit, DeFi United was formed with over $300 million contributions from stablecoin issuers, LRT providers, infrastructure protocols, and Layer-2s to make Aave depositors whole. This feat was a first of its kind and provided evidence that Aave has become too big to fail.
Where the 2008 bailout required Treasury authority, $700 billion in public funds, and effectively compulsory participation from the major banks, DeFi United reached the same outcome through voluntary, opt-in pledges from ecosystem participants whose products depend on Aave, demonstrating that DeFi can self-organize a systemic backstop without external intervention.
Despite a 45.1% TVL drawdown after the rsETH exploit, Aave still holds a 49.4% market share among the six largest lending protocols and more deposits than Morpho and SparkLend combined.
Aave is down 35.1% YTD and trades at 1.6x P/F, with every bear narrative of 2026 (contributor exodus, rsETH discourse, DAO turbulence) fully priced into the token, while the forward catalysts that will define the protocol’s next chapter (V4 ramping, the Aave Will Win framework, the Funding Abundance thesis, and the retail Aave app) remain unpriced.
By: Eric Manoukian · @CryptoRick98 · Research Analyst
edgeX's competitive fee structure and orderbook depth are emerging as key differentiators. A point-in-time benchmark of Gold perpetuals showed edgeX within 3% of Hyperliquid's depth at 1 bps and the cheapest round-trip execution at clip sizes up to $500,000. As market maker incentives scale with open interest and additional asset classes go live, these execution advantages should compound across a broader product surface.
Three non-crypto perps (XAUT, SILVER, NATGAS) entered edgeX's top 10 markets by cumulative volume in Q1. Non-crypto volume averaged 17.8% of daily perpetual activity in March, up from zero at the start of the quarter. With equity perps still maturing and additional commodity listings in the pipeline, the non-crypto mix shift is likely still in its early innings.
EDGE launched on March 31, 2026, reaching a $970 million fully diluted valuation. The team followed the TGE with an RFC proposing staking, delegation, and Guardian Committee governance for the EDGE Chain, alongside EDGE buybacks trackable via the protocol’s dashboard.
Circle Ventures made a strategic investment in edgeX during Q1, enabling native USDC and CCTP support on EDGE Chain. The subsequent launch of a 10% APR USDC rewards program on the first $30 million in deposits introduced a yield layer for idle stablecoins, creating a flywheel effect in which rising deposits deepen liquidity, tighten spreads, and attract larger traders as deposit caps increase.
By: Jack Koch-Gallup · @immutablejacob · Research Analyst
Network usage increased 71.9% QoQ to 134.4 million minutes, reaching a new quarterly high and reflecting deeper production usage and continued adoption across existing applications and builders.
Demand-side fees increased 34.2% QoQ to $257,300, although average revenue per 1,000 minutes declined 22% as throughput expanded faster than fee capture.
AI-driven fees totaled $154,700 in Q1, a 15.5% QoQ increase, and accounted for roughly 60% of total protocol revenue, remaining the network’s largest monetization driver.
Staking participation remained above the 50% target in Q1, contributing to lower inflation; however, total staking rewards declined 44% QoQ to $7.4 million, driven by lower LPT price and reduced token issuance.
Livepeer governance reactivated treasury rewards via LIP-101, restoring a 10% treasury cut, and launched a Protocol R&D SPE to formalize maintenance, upgrades, and network operations.
