TRX ETF Launches, TRON's Ambitions Go Beyond "US Stock Compliance"

Author: Jae, PANews

The institutional wave in the crypto industry has spread from Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) to staking ETFs, with TRON quietly undergoing a transformation in its identity.

On September 9, the Canary Staked TRX ETF (code: TRXS), initiated by Canary Capital, officially launched on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe BZX). Coupled with the Nasdaq-listed DAT TRON Inc., it has established a dual entry point into traditional capital markets with "staking ETF + listed DAT".

Beyond this entry point lies TRON's long-established USDT global settlement network and the AI Agent micropayment market, anchored by B.AI. From high-performance public chains competing on TPS to settlement infrastructure serving the real economy, and the financial foundation of the machine economy, TRON is carving out a unique path of value reconstruction.

From DAT to Staking ETF, TRON's US Stock Strategy Takes Another Step

In the institutionalization of crypto assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum have already attracted traditional funds through spot ETFs, and staking mechanisms are gradually being packaged into ETFs. The launch of TRXS means that TRON now has a standardized financial product offering "spot price exposure + on-chain staking returns".

According to SEC filings, TRXS will normally stake at least 90% of TRX, with net returns after service fees embedded into the fund's net value daily. For traditional investors, there is no need to manage private keys or access on-chain staking; they can gain exposure to TRX's price and staking returns through their stock accounts, further lowering the participation threshold.

Before TRXS, the US stock market layout around the TRON ecosystem had already begun. The US-listed company SRM Entertainment initiated a TRX digital asset treasury strategy in 2025 and renamed itself TRON Inc. after completing related financing, with the stock code changing to TRON. With the subsequent launch of TRXS, the TRON ecosystem has gradually formed two types of entry points in traditional capital markets: ETFs and listed company DAT. As of now, the holding value of TRON Inc. has reached $242 million, deeply binding the TRON ecosystem through TRX holdings and staking activities.

In fact, TRON is forming a dual capital market entry. The risk-return structures of the two are different, yet both embed the TRON ecosystem deeply into traditional financial markets:

• Staking ETF TRXS: A financing tool providing compliant asset exposure and staking returns, aimed at passive allocation and institutional asset management needs;

• DAT TRON Inc.: The equity entity carrying treasury strategies, corporate balance sheets, and corporate governance, reflecting the value of business operations and capital operations.

In simple terms, the two address different issues. TRXS is more like a standardized investment tool, solving the question of how traditional investors can gain TRX price exposure and staking returns through securities accounts; TRON Inc. is a listed company whose TRX treasury, staking income, financing ability, and business operations collectively influence equity value. One leans towards asset allocation, while the other focuses on corporate treasury, together expanding the pathways for traditional capital to access TRX.

400 Million Accounts, $30 Trillion Settlement, TRON Becomes Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure

Many investors still understand TRON through the "public chain" logic, but it has long since moved beyond the parameters of the TPS competition, growing into a "settlement infrastructure".

On-chain data is the hardest proof: As of August 23, the number of on-chain accounts for TRON surpassed 400 million, processing over 15.4 billion transactions, with cumulative transfer settlement amounts nearing $30 trillion.

Among these, TRON's deepest moat is liquidity. Currently, the issuance scale of USDT on TRON exceeds $94.2 billion, having surpassed the Ethereum network, firmly holding the position of the world's largest USDT issuance network.

The massive scale is rooted in the settlement needs of the emerging market real economy. In emerging markets facing high inflation, currency devaluation, and foreign exchange controls, such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, TRC-20 USDT has already taken on the underlying functions of cross-border B2B trade, small merchant settlements, and cross-border labor remittances. In the second quarter of this year, TRON processed USDT transfers amounting to $2.1 trillion, with an average daily settlement of about $23 billion.

The real network usage will also translate into resource demand for TRX. On-chain transactions on TRON require energy and bandwidth, which users can obtain by staking TRX; when available resources are insufficient, TRX must be consumed to pay network fees. Therefore, the more active on-chain activities like stablecoin transfers are, the higher the demand for network resources typically is. According to CoinDesk Research, TRON's protocol fees reached $89 million in the second quarter, second only to Hyperliquid among the major networks it tracked.

Today, the public chain track is bidding farewell to the era of "winner takes all". Ethereum, Solana, and TRON are all carving out their specialized, segmented routes, forming a new market structure of differentiated competition.

Ethereum boasts the most prosperous ecosystems for smart contracts, DeFi, and RWA, with products from leading institutions like BlackRock BUIDL deployed on its mainnet; Solana leverages low costs and high throughput to rapidly expand in high-frequency trading, order book matching, and meme asset issuance; TRON is embarking on a path akin to a "financial utility": not pursuing complex on-chain derivative products, but concentrating resources on low-friction, low-cost settlements to serve the capital flow of the real economy.

The three have distinct roles: Ethereum leans towards comprehensive financial application layers, Solana emphasizes high-frequency trading activities, while TRON resembles a global settlement network centered around the US dollar stablecoin.

However, the stablecoin war has already transcended the public chain realm. As the regulatory framework for stablecoins in the U.S. becomes clearer, banks, payment giants, and Wall Street institutions are rushing to enter the field. TRON's future competitors are not just other public chains, but also bank-led compliant stablecoin platforms and on-chain settlement networks built by payment giants. The global race for the issuance, circulation, and settlement of digital dollars has just entered deep waters.

Stablecoins Meet AI Agent Economy, TRON Charts a Second Growth Curve

Stablecoin settlement is TRON's most important growth engine, but where else can it extend?

B.AI has pointed out a new direction.

Launched in April this year, B.AI is positioned as financial infrastructure for AI Agents, with over 2.6 million registered users. On August 31, B.AI's daily token throughput exceeded 1.11 trillion; as of September 3, the cumulative token throughput since the start of the free activity surpassed 10.9 trillion, with API calls exceeding 89.56 million.

Its growth potential lies in redefining the payment subjects of stablecoins. In the past, stablecoins served transfers between people (P2P) and businesses (B2B). However, in the AI Agent era, the potential incremental demand is for "machine-to-machine" (M2M) programmatic micropayments: service calls, computing power settlements, and value transfers among massive agents all require real-time, low-cost, high-concurrency payment infrastructure.

A new growth flywheel may take shape: stablecoin settlements generate on-chain fees → fees intensify TRX burn → ETFs and DAT attract traditional capital → AI Agents recreate new payment demands.

Of course, this trend is still in its early stages. Whether AI Agents can form large-scale autonomous economic activities currently lacks effective commercial validation. The user base and throughput of B.AI cannot be directly equated with TRON's stablecoin settlement revenue. The real test lies in whether it can convert user scale into sustained payment, settlement, and financial demand.

For investors, the moment to reassess TRON has arrived.

It serves as a US dollar settlement network for the real economy in emerging markets, backed by genuine trade and remittance needs; it also opens up dual capital entry points through Nasdaq-listed DAT and ETF, gaining liquidity and valuation from traditional finance; looking ahead, B.AI is exploring the machine payment infrastructure of the AI Agent era, seeking a second growth curve.

In the increasingly value-capturing crypto industry, TRON's transformation offers another sample: rather than getting caught up in flashy technical narratives, it focuses on real settlement business, gradually integrating into traditional capital markets and expanding new AI application scenarios.

From a public chain to a composite financial infrastructure, TRON's value reassessment has just begun.

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