Ethereum is the biggest development platform in the crypto industry, but its inability to scale and meet demand is beginning to take its toll. Due to the growing fees, the TRON blockchain has become a much more popular network — useful not only for buying TRX, but also for small Tether (USDT) transactions.
Many USDT users shifted from Ethereum to TRON
According to recent data, the number of USDT transactions on TRON has surged recently. In fact, it has gone up enough to pass Ethereum’s count for as many as three consecutive weeks.
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It is believed that the reason for this is Ethereum’s gas fees, which remain quite high. As such, they are only affordable and sensible for those who have larger transactions to process. There are still quite a few users willing to pay elevated prices of the Ethereum network. For the last month, ETH has had around 1.5 million weekly transactions.
However, users who wish to invest in cryptocurrency in smaller quantities have turned to TRON. This is quite clear from the project’s transaction count, which skyrocketed from 900,000 in mid-December, to almost 2 million per week in mid-January.
TRON is more popular for smaller USDT transactions
According to Coin Metrics, the reason for this is the high price of fees, which tend to go as high up as to reach prices above $19. Currently, the fees sit just below $8. However, while below the all-time high, that is still considered very high for the crypto industry, where millions of dollars can be processed for barely a few cents.
Another crypto data firm, Blockchair, noted that fees have surpassed 0.015 ETH several times in the last month. As it were, crypto users do not wish to spend their money on paying high fees, which is why they shift to a cheaper network — TRON’s.
Ethereum still processes a greater volume of USDT than TRON, meaning that only those who transact smaller amounts are migrating to the rivaling blockchain.
Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, said that it is logical for smaller transactors to use TRON, especially as the younger project saw good adoption on exchanges. TRON, of course, is not the only alternative, but it seems to offer the best conditions when it comes to network effects, usability, and low fees.