TRON ended the second quarter with a major stablecoin milestone: it recorded $87.9 billion in circulating USDT, putting it ahead of Ethereum on the same metric, while processing $2.1 trillion worth of USDT transfers over the quarter. The figures underscore how deeply USDT liquidity has embedded itself in TRON’s rails, even as parts of the ecosystem show softer momentum elsewhere.

According to a Messari report on the network’s second-quarter performance, USDT represented 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market. Stablecoin supply on TRON also rose, climbing 4.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record $89.2 billion. After a drop in Q1, average daily USDT transfer volume resumed growth, increasing 4.3% to $22.8 billion.

Key takeaways

• TRON led on USDT circulation in Q2, reaching $87.9B and processing $2.1T in USDT transfers during the quarter.
• Stablecoin dominance remained extreme, with USDT making up 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin supply.
• Network usage hit new highs, including 14.6M transactions on June 15 and record-level daily activity.
• Fees reversed direction, rising 15.9% to $699.4M, the first quarterly increase after a prior governance change.
• DeFi activity cooled even as payments grew, with DeFi TVL down 1.9% and DEX volumes falling for a fourth straight quarter.

USDT expansion drives TRON’s transaction growth

Messari attributes TRON’s improved throughput to stronger day-to-day demand for USDT transfers. The network averaged 11.8 million daily transactions in Q2, up 8.7% from the prior quarter. Active usage also improved: average daily active addresses increased 11.7% to 3.6 million. The report also highlights the peak day, when TRON processed 14.6 million transactions on June 15.

From an investor and market-structure perspective, this matters because USDT activity often translates into consistent utilization of on-chain infrastructure. Even when broader on-chain applications fluctuate, stablecoin transfer volume can sustain network demand—particularly on chains where stablecoins are heavily concentrated.

Fees recover after an earlier governance shift

Beyond transaction counts, the report notes that TRON’s fee environment changed as well. Network fees rose 15.9% to $699.4 million in Q2, described as the first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change reduced the network’s energy unit price. In other words, Q2’s fee growth appears tied not only to higher activity, but also to a longer arc in TRON’s fee mechanics after that policy adjustment.

Still, the relationship between network fees and usage can be nonlinear when protocol parameters change. Traders and builders watching TRON may want to pay close attention to whether future fee levels keep rising with demand or whether they plateau as the impact of the earlier energy-unit pricing adjustment stabilizes.

DeFi softens while supply growth continues

Despite the payment-heavy momentum, parts of TRON’s on-chain ecosystem showed uneven performance. Messari reports that DeFi TVL fell 1.9% to $4.4 billion during the quarter. Decentralized exchange activity also cooled: average daily DEX volume dropped 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking a fourth consecutive quarterly decline.

This divergence—strong stablecoin transfer volume alongside weaker DeFi engagement—suggests that Q2’s growth may have been driven more by utility and circulation than by risk-taking or trading depth on TRON’s DeFi venues. For users, this can affect liquidity conditions and token execution quality on DEXs; for developers, it may signal that ecosystem growth is currently being led by transfers rather than by on-chain lending, borrowing, and trading.

Meanwhile, the report indicates that TRX supply remained inflationary. Even with higher activity, circulating supply increased by 87 million tokens during the quarter, with issuance continuing to outpace burns. That dynamic is notable because it can influence long-term expectations around token supply pressure, particularly when network usage is improving but supply reduction mechanisms aren’t yet keeping up.

Institutional access expands through tokenization and custody

While on-chain metrics show clear usage trends, institutional infrastructure around TRON also advanced during the quarter. Messari highlights that Securitize launched Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on TRON—its first TRON-issued asset. The fund reportedly started with about $4.3 million under management.

Broader institutional interest also included token listing and potential product developments. Grayscale reportedly added TRX to its list of assets under consideration. Separately, a proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration.

On the market-access side, TRX trading availability improved across venues. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, while OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated TRX expiry perpetuals. The quarter also saw Binance.US restore trading in the token.

The institutional push continued after Q2 ended. Earlier coverage noted Anchorage Digital adding native TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, enabling institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform. For market participants, custody-and-staking workflows can be a critical step toward deeper institutional adoption, as they reduce operational friction compared with self-custody or manual transfer processes.

Read together, TRON’s Q2 pattern looks less like a pure “DeFi rally” and more like a chain consolidating stablecoin circulation and steadily improving institutional plumbing. The key question for the next quarter is whether stronger USDT throughput can translate into renewed DeFi demand—particularly DEX volumes and TVL—or whether TRON will remain primarily a stablecoin settlement venue while trading and application activity lag behind.

Bitcoin Policy Institute and more than 40 digital-asset organizations have called on leading AI laboratories to give qualified open-source security researchers controlled access to frontier models as AI-assisted cyberattacks grow more capable.

Bitcoin coalition asks AI labs for controlled access

Bitcoin Policy Institute announced the initiative in an Aug. 10 X post, saying the coalition represents organizations from across the digital-asset ecosystem.

The open letter asks leading AI developers to provide qualified open-source defenders with trusted access to their most capable models. It does not call for unrestricted public access to models with advanced cybersecurity capabilities.

Instead, the signatories proposed a controlled program covering early access to frontier cybersecurity models, sufficient computing capacity, secure research environments, and direct channels with AI laboratory security teams.

Those resources would allow vetted researchers to examine Bitcoin wallets, payment infrastructure, and other open-source software before attackers can exploit newly discovered weaknesses.

“The past several weeks have made the need for this abundantly clear,” Bitcoin Policy Institute wrote.

Block, Coinbase, Strategy, MARA, Galaxy, BitGo, Brink, OpenSats, Chaincode Labs, Spiral, Trezor, Unchained, Btrust, and Fedi were among the organizations supporting the request.

The coalition argued that current model safeguards can restrict legitimate security research even as criminals and state-backed groups gain access to increasingly capable open or locally deployed systems. Its central message to AI laboratories was that defenders need an early opportunity to identify and repair vulnerabilities.

No leading AI laboratory had publicly announced a program responding to the coalition’s specific requests at the time of writing.

AI-assisted attacks raise pressure on crypto firms

The appeal follows mounting evidence that hackers are incorporating artificial intelligence into attacks against cryptocurrency companies and financial institutions.

North Korea-linked hacking group Kimsuky has reportedly built three local AI environments using Ollama, GPT4All, and Msty. The systems can support malware development, data analysis, phishing campaigns, and attack automation without transmitting sensitive queries to an external provider.

As crypto.news previously reported, the group produced AI-generated phishing material aimed at cryptocurrency, investment, and financial technology companies.

Local models create a particular challenge for model providers. An attacker running an open model on privately controlled hardware may not be subject to the monitoring, usage restrictions, or account suspensions imposed by commercial AI services.

That difference sits at the center of the coalition’s argument. Restricting trusted defenders may offer limited protection if malicious actors can use locally deployed models or bypass commercial safeguards while researchers remain unable to test the most capable systems.

The threat also carries a U.S. security angle. Several signatories, including Coinbase, Strategy, Block, MARA, and Galaxy, are publicly traded or U.S.-based companies with substantial exposure to Bitcoin infrastructure. Successful attacks could affect American customers, institutional custodians, and investors even when the vulnerable software is maintained by a global open-source community.

Bitcoin flaws show potential role for frontier models

Recent Bitcoin security incidents have demonstrated how weaknesses in open-source software can remain undetected for years.

A firmware build error affecting Coldcard hardware wallets reportedly weakened the entropy used to generate seed phrases. Attackers could then search a much smaller range of possible keys and drain wallets without obtaining physical access to the devices.

Galaxy Research estimated that confirmed Coldcard thefts reached 1,596 BTC, while a suspected additional attack wave could raise losses to about 2,055 BTC. The error had reportedly been present since 2021.

AI-assisted analysis subsequently expanded scrutiny beyond the original flaw. A crypto.news investigation found that automated reviews were surfacing similar classes of security weaknesses across the broader Bitcoin ecosystem.

Bitcoin Red Team provided another example of defensive AI use. The volunteer initiative reported finding 4,962 potential issues across 390 Bitcoin-related projects during fewer than 30 hours of AI-assisted code reviews.

Of those findings, 720 were initially classified as high or critical severity, although automated findings still require human reproduction and verification. More than one-fifth had reportedly been reproduced when crypto.news covered the review campaign.

Those results illustrate both the potential and limits of frontier models. AI can examine large codebases faster than small volunteer teams, but qualified researchers are still needed to remove false positives, test exploitability, and disclose verified vulnerabilities safely.

Bitcoin security funding expands beyond AI access

The open letter adds to a broader push to increase resources available to Bitcoin security researchers.

Strategy, BlackRock, Coinbase, and six other companies recently established the Bitcoin Security Consortium. Its members pledged $15 million over three years to fund developers and researchers working on Bitcoin’s long-term security.

Post-quantum cryptography is the consortium’s initial focus, though its mandate covers broader protocol security. Members said they would choose funding recipients independently and would not direct Bitcoin development or take positions on proposed protocol changes.

Galaxy separately opened a $5 million Bitcoin security fund covering new signature systems, wallet-migration tools, audits, and research into quantum-resistant protections.

Industry-wide losses continue to increase despite those initiatives. Immunefi reported that crypto projects lost roughly $110 million to hacks in July. The security platform recorded 164 incidents through Aug. 3 and projected that the number of hacks exceeding $1 million could reach a record 114 in 2026.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute coalition is now asking AI companies to complement financial support with technical access. Whether laboratories accept that proposal will depend on their ability to verify researchers, supervise potentially sensitive work, and prevent advanced cybersecurity models from being redirected toward offensive activity.

What this means: Strategy CEO Phong Le said the company has adjusted its approach after discovering that preferred stock investors put a premium on cash liquidity.

• Strategy now holds $4.75 billion in cash, providing about 2.7 years of dividend coverage, Le said in an interview on CoinDesk’s Public Keys with Jennifer Sanasie.
• Le said he initially assumed investors would value bitcoin highly because it is liquid and has appreciated significantly over time.
• But institutions and investors putting shorter-term money into Strategy’s products “value cash more,” he said.

The context: The cash cushion is part of Strategy’s push to evolve beyond simply buying and holding bitcoin into a broader digital credit business.

• Strategy has developed preferred-stock products such as STRC for investors seeking bitcoin-linked returns with less volatility.
• Le described a spectrum ranging from investors seeking amplified bitcoin returns to those looking for lower-volatility yields closer to traditional credit or money-market products.
• “Would I rather hold Bitcoin? Perhaps,” Le said. But making Strategy’s preferred products work ultimately supports MSTR and its bitcoin strategy, he argued.

Reading between lines: Le is pitching Strategy as a financial platform built around bitcoin rather than merely a leveraged bitcoin proxy.

TRON, the layer-1 blockchain founded by Justin Sun, ended the second quarter with $87.9 billion in circulating USDT (USDT), surpassing Ethereum (ETH) while processing $2.1 trillion in USDT transfers during the period.

According to a Messari report, USDT accounted for 98.5% of TRON’s stablecoin market, which grew 4.1% quarter-over-quarter to a record $89.2 billion. Average daily USDT transfer volume also returned to growth, rising 4.3% to $22.8 billion after declining in the first quarter. 

The increase coincided with record network usage. TRON averaged 11.8 million daily transactions during the quarter, up 8.7%, while average daily active addresses climbed 11.7% to 3.6 million. The network processed a record 14.6 million transactions on June 15, the report said.

State of TRON Q2 2026 report. Source: Messari

Higher activity also helped reverse a two-quarter decline in network fees. Fees rose 15.9% to $699.4 million, their first quarterly increase since an August 2025 governance change cut the network’s energy unit price. 

Growth was uneven elsewhere. DeFi TVL slipped 1.9% to $4.4 billion, while average daily DEX volume fell 21.7% to $49.3 million, marking a fourth consecutive quarterly decline. TRX supply also remained inflationary despite higher activity, with circulating supply increasing by 87 million tokens during the quarter as issuance continued to outpace burns.

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TRON expands institutional access

Institutional access to TRON widened during the quarter, with Securitize launching Hamilton Lane’s tokenized Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on the network, its first TRON-issued asset. The fund launched with about $4.3 million under management. 

Asset manager Grayscale also added TRX (TRX), the native token of the TRON blockchain, to its list of assets under consideration, while a proposed staked TRX exchange-traded product from Canary Capital remained in registration.

Meanwhile, TRX saw broader market access during the quarter. Bitnomial launched spot TRX trading in the United States, while OKX Europe introduced MiFID-regulated TRX expiry perpetuals and Binance.US restored trading in the token.

That trend continued after the quarter ended, with Anchorage Digital adding native TRX staking and custody for TRC-20 assets in July, allowing institutional clients to stake TRX directly from its custody platform.

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Ethereum staking has reached a record 41.7 million ETH, locking more than one-third of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply despite a sharp decline in its market price.

Ethereum staking climbs despite price decline

A CryptoQuant chart shared by cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex on Aug. 10 showed that the amount of Ethereum (ETH) committed to staking had reached an all-time high of 41.7 million ETH.

The figure represents roughly one-third of Ethereum’s circulating supply. CoinMarketCap data places the asset’s supply near 120.7 million ETH, meaning approximately 34.5% is now staked.

“Staked ETH has climbed to a record 41.7 million, a third of all ETH in existence, while price fell from $3,400 in January to $1,900,” Bitfinex wrote.

The chart shows that staking deposits remained near 36 million ETH through late 2025 before beginning a sustained increase in February. Growth continued through the second quarter and accelerated again between June and August.

The increase comes despite ETH losing about 44% of its value from its January level. Ethereum traded near $1,900 when Bitfinex published the chart, showing that validators and long-term holders continued locking tokens even as spot-market conditions weakened.

crypto.news reported in January that 36.2 million ETH, or nearly 30% of the supply, had been staked. The latest figure represents an increase of approximately 5.5 million ETH in less than seven months.

Reinvested rewards keep staked ETH growing

Ethereum validators receive newly issued ETH for proposing blocks, attesting to transactions, and supporting network consensus. They may also collect priority fees and maximal extractable value.

Part of that income can be returned to staking, creating a compounding effect even when ETH’s dollar price falls. However, returns decline as more validators join because Ethereum distributes issuance across a larger staked balance.

Corporate treasury companies have become a major part of this trend. BitMine had approximately 4.9 million ETH staked as of July 12, equal to about 85% of its Ethereum holdings.

The company generated $45.7 million from staking and validation during the quarter ended May 31. Chairman Tom Lee projected that annual rewards could reach $284 million if BitMine stakes its entire ETH treasury, although returns depend on yields and validator conditions.

SharpLink has also committed most of its Ethereum treasury to staking. Its strategy continued generating ETH rewards even as lower market prices contributed to a $394.3 million second-quarter loss.

Record staking renews Ethereum issuance debate

The continued increase has renewed questions about how much ETH should be committed to network security and whether Ethereum’s reward curve encourages excessive staking.

EIP-8363, known as Tapered Issuance Burn, would burn a growing share of consensus-layer rewards as the staking ratio rises. The mechanism would remove issuance-based rewards when approximately half of Ethereum’s supply is staked.

As crypto.news previously reported, the proposal’s authors argue that the current system continues rewarding additional deposits even after they provide limited security benefits. EIP-8363 remains under review and has not been approved for an Ethereum upgrade.

SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom has opposed the plan, arguing that native yield supports Ethereum’s institutional appeal and acts as a benchmark for returns across decentralized finance.

US institutions expand access to ETH yield

Staking has also become more accessible through regulated investment products in the United States. Grayscale distributed about $9.4 million in ETH staking proceeds to eligible ETHE shareholders in January, marking the first such payout by a U.S.-listed Ethereum product.

Morgan Stanley has also added staking provisions to its proposed Ethereum ETF. Its filing showed that 3.64 million ETH was waiting to enter validation as of May 18, implying an activation delay of approximately 63 days.

Continued institutional participation could remove more ETH from liquid markets. However, staking does not guarantee price appreciation, and the divergence between record deposits and ETH’s decline shows that supply constraints can be outweighed by broader selling pressure.

Wallets tied to crypto payments platform Coinsbuy were reportedly drained of more than $7.9 million in funds spanning Ethereum and TRON on Sunday, according to blockchain investigator SpecterAnalyst.

In a Telegram post, SpecterAnalyst said the attacker began routing the stolen assets into Monero via exchanges. The investigator also reported that ChangeNOW helped freeze a six-figure portion of the funds during the incident.

Key takeaways

• SpecterAnalyst alleges attackers moved stolen Ethereum and TRON funds into Monero through exchanges.
• ChangeNOW is reported to have frozen part of the assets, reducing what the attacker could immediately keep.
• Coinsbuy paused deposits and withdrawals after the incident, then restored both services.
• Coinsbuy says it covered all affected client funds from its own reserves, without client losses.
• The company offered a $100,000 reward for information identifying the responsible parties.

Reported theft and fund movement

SpecterAnalyst’s report claims the compromise involved multiple wallet addresses connected to Coinsbuy. The investigator identified three addresses associated with the stolen activity: two Ethereum addresses and one TRON address.

Rather than leaving the funds on-chain, the alleged operator reportedly initiated transfers aimed at increasing privacy. SpecterAnalyst stated that the attacker routed the proceeds into Monero through exchanges, a path commonly used in laundering attempts where the goal is to obscure fund trails across networks.

The investigator further indicated that ChangeNOW played a role in limiting the damage by freezing a portion of the stolen assets—described as a six-figure amount—after the incident began.

Coinsbuy confirms incident and compensates clients

Coinsbuy acknowledged the security incident in a statement shared with Cointelegraph, saying unauthorized withdrawals affected several platform wallets. The company said the impact was handled internally: all affected client funds were “fully covered… from our own reserves,” according to Coinsbuy’s statement, meaning users did not suffer financial losses.

Coinsbuy also stated that operations were restored and that the platform is “back to operating normally,” with deposits and withdrawals available again. In the immediate aftermath of the reported hack, the platform had temporarily paused those functions, a step that typically aims to stop further outflows while incident response teams assess wallet activity and implement controls.

While SpecterAnalyst reported a theft of more than $7.9 million, Coinsbuy did not confirm or dispute that figure. The company said it is investigating the event, but will refrain from disclosing technical details until the investigation is complete and its findings have been verified.

Reward program and what to watch next

Beyond compensating users, Coinsbuy said it is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to identification of those responsible. It also added that there would be an additional bonus for help recovering the stolen funds.

For affected users and monitoring communities, the most important open questions now center on how the compromise occurred and what controls failed—or were circumvented. Coinsbuy’s decision not to publish technical details yet means observers will need to watch for later disclosures that can clarify whether this was primarily a custody issue, an operational security lapse, a smart contract problem (if applicable), or something else entirely.

Given SpecterAnalyst’s claim that stolen funds were moved toward Monero via exchanges, the timeline for additional enforcement and tracing will likely depend on how quickly exchanges and compliance partners can identify related transactions and block further conversion or withdrawal routes. The reported freezing of a portion of funds highlights that intervention can matter during the early hours of such incidents, but it does not automatically indicate how much remains recoverable.

How this fits the broader crypto payments risk picture

Incidents like this underscore a persistent challenge for crypto payments and custody-adjacent businesses: even when clients are made whole, platform wallets become an attractive target because they concentrate balances, enable faster movement, and can provide an immediate payout surface if access controls are breached.

Coinsbuy’s statement that it covered client funds from reserves is a useful data point for users evaluating risk around payment providers—compensation reduces direct losses, but it still signals that operational disruptions can happen and that recovery efforts may be complex. The temporary halt in deposits and withdrawals also reflects the standard incident-response pattern: contain outflows, assess exposure, and then reopen services once systems are deemed stable.

Investors and builders in the sector may also want to pay attention to what controls Coinsbuy says it will improve later. The lack of technical disclosure right now makes it difficult to assess whether similar weaknesses could affect other platforms using comparable wallet management, exchange integrations, or withdrawal workflows.

Next, readers should look for updates from Coinsbuy’s investigation—especially any verified technical findings—and for additional reporting on whether more of the stolen funds can be traced, frozen, or recovered as the laundering path into Monero and off-chain exchange activity unfolds.