Summary
LlamaRisk supports deploying Aave V3 on Tron. Tron is already one of the largest blockchains by total value locked (~$5.1 B), active addresses (~2.2 M), and outstanding stablecoin supply (over $70 B), yet its DeFi stack remains limited. A single lending protocol, JustLend, secures about $4B of deposits, but only 4 % is borrowed, while SUNswap dominates spot liquidity. Capturing this untapped demand represents a clear growth opportunity for Aave.
The network relies on a Delegated-PoS consensus in which 27 Super Representatives take turns producing and validating blocks; a recent snapshot showed that these same 27 validators produced 52 % of all blocks and received 97 % of the votes, highlighting a high degree of concentration.
Oracle infrastructure is provided by Chainlink, which maintains 14 price feeds on Tron and removes a major integration hurdle for Aave.
Security oversight is supplemented by a public HackerOne bug-bounty program launched in January 2023; However, the program is live, and its payouts—$250, $500, $1 000, and a maximum of $5 000 for critical findings—are extremely small relative to the value secured and should be improved. TronDAO has informed us that this will be addressed shortly.
Other fundamentals—full EVM compatibility through the Tron Virtual Machine, three-second block times, and inexpensive bandwidth and energy fees—simplify deployment. We recommend launching Aave V3 on Tron with conservative risk parameters that can be adjusted as on-chain liquidity diversifies beyond USDT and the network strengthens its security safeguards.
Initial instance parameters have been discussed and will be presented jointly with @ChaosLabs.
1. Network Fundamental Characteristics
1.1 Network Overview
Tron is an EVM-compatible L1 blockchain built using the Solidity programming language. Launched in May 2018, Tron’s architecture incorporates key components similar to Ethereum: a Delegated POS consensus mechanism, operational units of measurement (transaction and computation costs) based on ‘Bandwidth’ and ‘Energy’, and a Tron Virtual Machine.
A recent upgrade to Tron 4.8.0, announced in April 2025, introduced important changes to the network, including enhancing Consensus Layer verification (prevents malicious blocks from being generated during maintenance), upgrading Event Service V2.0 (for faster processes and historical queries, improving node performance (e.g, faster block synchronization), deprecation of the SELFDESTRUCT in TVM, and Ethereum compatibility upgrade among others.
Key network metrics (as of April 23rd, 2025)
Metric |
Value |
Max transactions per second (capped) |
1,035 |
Block generation time |
3 seconds |
Total transactions |
10.2B |
Total accounts |
302M |
Total blocks |
71.6M |
Architecture
Source: Architecture of TRON, Tron docs
Tron architecture is made up of 3 layers:
1. Core Layer
This layer forms the underlying layer of the blockchain, consisting of modules that manage smart contracts and accounts, including the smart contract module, account management module, and consensus module. Additionally, a stack-based virtual machine, TVM, supports the consensus module in the layer.
2. Storage Layer
The storage layer is a distributed protocol allowing block and state data storage.
3. Application Layer
Includes developer-made dApps and wallet interfaces, supporting multi-language extensions.
Source: Transaction Lifecycle, Tron docs
Consensus Model
TRON uses Delegated Proof of Staking (DPOS) as its consensus mechanism. This entails the selection of block-producing validators through a staked election process; validators with the most votes are selected as “Witnesses”. Witness nodes on Tron are called Super Representatives (SRs) and are elected by TRX stakers (Tron’s native token). SRs are the sole producers of blocks and transaction validators, maintaining the network’s security.
Source: Consensus Algorithms: Proof-of-Stake & Cryptoeconomics, Nichanank
During each epoch, SRs take turns producing blocks for each slot time. Once blocks have been processed, SRs sign the block witness_signature
fields to commit them. SRs add additional data to each block, such as the parent block hash, super representative address, the block height, and block time. Generated blocks are broadcast to other SRs for consensus, requiring more than 70% approval following the longest chain principle in the event of a fork.
Epochs are set to 6 hours, with elections for SRs occurring in the last two block times (maintenance period). The block generation order is also determined during this period, and expired proposals are processed.
Virtual Machine
Originally forked from the EVM, the TVM executes Tron smart contracts and performs state change operations on a block-by-block basis, with Tron’s canonical state maintained as a Merkle Trie data structure.
Source: TVM flowchart, Tron Docs
TVM flow process:
- The compiler compiles smart contracts into readable and executable bytecode
- TVM processes bytecode data through the opcode smart contract
- TVM accesses blockchain data and makes external calls through its interoperability service layer.
- TVM executes and generates a block (in the case of lead SR) or validates a block (in the case of other SRs).
Key differences between TVM and EVM
- TVM uses energy instead of gas.
- Tron contract addresses use 0x41 as prefixes
- TVM calculates
SHA-256
twice for pre-compiled contract Ripemd160(0x03)
- EVM uses Blake2F while TVM uses
BatchValidateSign
for pre-compiled contract 0x09.
- There are 2 ways to send TRX:
Transfer
and TriggerSmartContract
with a callValue
. Transfer does not call fallback functions in contracts.
Nodes
There are two types of nodes on the Tron network: Full nodes and Lite FullNodes. Full nodes verify, store, and sync all data and states on the chain. Additionally, they provide APIs for external queries. Lite FullNodes run the same code but differ from Full nodes as they only store data and states of the latest 65536 blocks. Lite nodes only support queries for data after the Lite node is initialized.
As part of the DPOS mechanism, 27 Full nodes are chosen to become Super Representatives from any nodes that pay a 9,999 TRX fee and receive the top 27 most votes during the maintenance period.
SRs are backed up by 100 SR partners, who can replace inactive or underperforming SRs. SRs and SR partners are elected every 6 hours. SRs receive rewards in 2 forms:
- Block Production Reward: 16 TRX per block to the SR that produced the block; a portion of this reward (default 80%) is distributed to SR voters as a commission and incentive for voting.
- Voting Reward: 160 TRX per block to SRs and SR partners in proportion to their votes; a portion of this reward is also distributed to voters.
Given the absence of validators required to provide economic security, nodes are only incentivized to act properly or potentially be voted out as an SR, forfeiting block production rewards.
Asset Standards
TRC20 is the fungible token standard (compatible with ERC20), and TRC721 is the NFT standard (compatible with ERC721). TRC10 is an account-issued token unique to Tron. TRC1155 supports both fungible and non-fungible token standards.
Fees
Bandwidth and energy are used as units of measurement for resource consumption; both unit prices are denominated in ‘sun’. Bandwidth represents the byte size of a transaction; transactions are transmitted and stored as byte arrays. 1 byte = 1 unit of bandwidth; the larger a transaction’s byte size, the more Bandwidth resources it will consume. Bandwidth is obtained by staking TRX via a FreezeBalanceV2Contract
transaction; accounts receive a portion of the daily network amount and a 600 daily Bandwidth allowance. Once an account’s bandwidth has been used, TRX is burned at 0.001 TRX per Bandwidth unit.
Energy represents the computation the TVM requires to process smart contracts. The more complex an execution is, the more energy is required. Energy is acquired similarly to bandwidth by staking TRX. Once an account’s energy is depleted, TRX is burned at 0.00021 TRX per Energy unit. Both Energy and Bandwidth are consumed in Tron transactions.
Other fees applicable to the network include:
Transaction Type |
Description |
Fee |
WitnessCreateContract |
Apply to become a super representative candidate |
9999 TRX |
AssetIssueContract |
Issue a TRC10 token |
1024 TRX |
AccountCreateContract |
Create a new account (activate an account) |
1 TRX |
AccountPermissionUpdateContract |
Update account permissions |
100 TRX |
ExchangeCreateContract |
Create an exchange pair |
1024 TRX |
TransferContract/TransferAssetContract |
TRX transfer or TRC10 token transfer (includes new account creation fee) |
1 TRX |
Security
Least Authority and ChainSecurity have audited Tron’s codebase. Only 2 external audits could be found at the time of writing, with a 4-year gap between them.
- Least Authority (March 2020): 2 issues were found and resolved, 4 suggestions
- Chainsecurity (September 2024): 4 severity findings which were corrected, 8 medium findings, and 9 low severity findings
Considering the number of protocol updates, the lack of regular audits should be of concern, given the number of changes to the network’s codebase. The network maintains full transparency through its open-source GitHub repository, enabling independent security reviews and discoverability of potential issues.
Past Exploits
The UpdateAccountPermission
feature that enables account owners to assign multisig roles to accounts was exploited for $31.5M in 2024. This vulnerability requires the account’s private key to be compromised. This was addressed by modifying leading wallets such as TronLink to warn users against this threat vector more explicitly.
In 2023, $137M was stolen from Tron users in phishing operations identified to be led by North Korean hackers.
Bug Bounty
Tron launched a Hackerone bug bounty program in Jan 2023, with a tiered severity level payout scheme: $250 per low finding, $500 per medium finding, $1000 per high finding, and $5000 per critical finding. To date, $2350 has been paid out from 20 reports resolved.
On average, it has taken ~5 days for a finding to be resolved and ~3 days from a report submission for a payout.
This is low and will be addressed by the team shortly, with the critical level being raised to $100K.
Network Risk Considerations
Architecture: Tron relies on 27 witness nodes (Super Representatives) to produce and validate blocks, centralizing the network’s operations in a small set of operators. The reduced diversity of validators increases the potential for collusion, which is magnified by the lack of staked collateral and provides no disincentives against bad actors in the event of collusion.
Client dependence: A single client software (java-tron) is available to run a node, which increases the network’s reliance on a single codebase.
Security: Given the network’s previous vulnerabilities, trade volumes, and active users, bug bounty rewards do not seem adequate for active bug discoveries and risk mitigation. Additionally, we encourage more external audits to support the network’s updates and maturation.
1.2 Decentralization and Legal Evaluation
Governance
Since 2021, Tron has been governed by the Tron DAO. The network utilizes a dual management model that includes Super Representatives (committee, partners, and candidates) and Core Developers.
The SR Committee, which consists of the current 27 SRs, can modify dynamic parameters that include the Resource model (Bandwidth and Energy fees), SR parameters (e.g., account creation cost, rewards, and maintenance interval), Upper and lower limits (e.g., max execution time, smart contract fees), and TVM and Consesus model changes among others. Committee members, partners, and candidates can propose modifications to parameters, but voting on proposals is limited to elected SRs. Proposals are valid for 3 days and require at least 18 SRs to vote in favor to pass.
Voting for SRs requires accounts to stake TRX, and by staking TRX, accounts receive voting rights in the form of Tron Power (TP); 1 TRX stake generates 1 TP. As mentioned in section 1.1, elections occur during the last 2 blocks of an epoch (every 6 hours). Voting rights cannot be delegated to other accounts. However, Energy and Bandwidth can. Unstaking TRX revokes TP and reclaims TP allocated to the SRs an account had voted for.
Source: Committee proposal, Tronscan
Tron Core Developers can change core protocol specifications (e.g., consensus forks, application-level standards, and TVM modifications), client APIs, and contract standards through TIPs (Tron Improvement Proposals) that only require consensus from core developers. TIPs undergo a 2-week process of refinement and discussion before Core Devs decide on implementation. This 2-week window is not programmatically enforced.
A community forum exists for network-related discussions; however, protocol proposals are not discussed here. TIPs are posted on GitHub, with discussions occurring in the proposals. SR governance utilizes onchain mechanisms, with proposals, voting, and executions visible onchain. Approved parameter changes are actioned in the following maintenance period. See an executed proposal here.
The time delay for network changes varies and depends on when sufficient upvotes are received within the validity period (3 days), ranging between:
- 6 hours if a proposal passes at the start of an epoch.
- 6 seconds if a proposal passes before the start of the next maintenance period.
Risk Considerations
On May 2nd, 2025, Staked TRX as a percentage of circulating TRX supply was 45.45%; this represents less than a majority of available TRX not engaging in governance. This creates the possibility of large TRX stakers influencing the selection of SRs.
TRON Core Developers can make unilateral changes to the network. At the same time, modifications are communicated ahead of time, and through platforms such as GitHub, X, and Medium, significant change discussions are decided by a narrow group of developers. An example is the 4.8.0 upgrade.
Node Distribution
A Tron Committee composition observed on April 27th, 2025.
Rank |
Name |
Produced (Cum.) |
Ratio (Cum.) |
1 |
Binance Staking |
2,137,003 |
99.57% |
2 |
TRONALLIANCE |
2,404,993 |
99.93% |
3 |
Poloniex |
2,018,896 |
99.98% |
4 |
Abra Capital Management |
851,547 |
99.99% |
5 |
Crypto Labs |
1,309,269 |
99.99% |
6 |
BlockAnalysis |
1,106,395 |
99.99% |
7 |
Luganodes |
1,046,062 |
99.99% |
8 |
JD Investment |
1,625,008 |
99.96% |
9 |
Crypto Innovation Fund |
1,316,956 |
99.98% |
10 |
Huobi_Wallet |
1,446,018 |
99.13% |
11 |
Intelligence Quant |
1,292,348 |
99.99% |
12 |
Smart Consensus |
1,293,247 |
99.99% |
13 |
cryptoAI |
857,674 |
99.99% |
14 |
BlockchainOrg |
2,412,856 |
99.87% |
15 |
metaverse home |
1,309,092 |
99.99% |
16 |
Ant Investment Group |
1,699,843 |
99.93% |
17 |
Chain Cloud |
1,105,756 |
99.99% |
18 |
TronSpark |
2,592,554 |
99.77% |
19 |
P2P |
7,480 |
99.87% |
20 |
StakedTron |
1,928,790 |
99.9% |
21 |
CryptoChain |
2,559,283 |
99.84% |
22 |
Google Cloud |
358,603 |
99.99% |
23 |
Kiln_Staking |
74,625 |
99.93% |
24 |
CryptoGuyInZA |
2,633,277 |
99.88% |
25 |
Nansen |
74,686 |
100% |
26 |
OKCoinJapan |
743,072 |
99.99% |
27 |
OKX Earn |
1,045,311 |
99.9% |
*Note: This is reconfigured every 6 hours
At the time, these SRs had produced ~52% of the total blocks produced and are observed as having staying power as committee members. This concentration systematically relies on these operators, including centralized exchanges and investment entities.
Source: Node Distribution, Tronscan, April 27th, 2025
There are 8,128 nodes distributed over 84 countries, with the top 5 being the USA, Ireland, China, Germany, and Singapore. Continental concentration is fairly evenly distributed between North America, Asia, and Europe.
1.3 Activity Benchmarks
Source: Tron TVL & Stablecoin Market Cap, DeFiLlama, April 29th, 2025
Tron’s $5.074B TVL represents the fifth-largest chain by TVL, down from its ATH of $10.5B in March 2024.
The network’s stablecoin market has seen continuous growth, rising to over $70B in market cap, with USDT representing 99% of the overall market. Since the introduction of native USDT minting on the network in March 2019, USDT has remained the only major stablecoin.
Source: Active accounts, Tronscan, April 29th, 2025
Source: Transaction volume, Tronscan, April 29th, 2025
Since the network’s launch, active accounts and transaction volume have remained consistent over the last 90 days, with overall growth.
2. Network Market Outlook
2.1 Market Infrastructure
Source: Protocol Rankings, DeFiLlama, April 29th, 2025
The network’s DeFi landscape is relatively small, given its high TVL; only 5 protocols have TVLs over $1M. The sectors represented by these protocols include lending, CDPs, and Dexes. Other protocols with over $10K in TVL by category include (as of April 29th, 2025):
Lending: JustLend ($3.7B)
DEXs: SUN.io (SUNswap, SUNcurve, SunPump) ($940M), Just Money ($717K), Intercroneswap ($298K), Socialswap ($282K), Bridgers ($81K)
CDPs: USDD ($362.45m), JustStables ($36.97M)
RWA: stUSDT
Staking Pool: NEOPIN ($622K)
On/Off Ramps: ByBarter, Moonpay, Alchemy Pay, Transak, Mercuryo, Blockchain Pay
The only significant lending protocol, JustLend, is also the largest protocol by TVL. Relative to the total supply of stablecoins, DeFi activity and diversity are low, with a single player in the lending market.
Bridges
Available bridge options include BitTorrent Bridge, JustCrypto, Symbiosis, Poloniex (multi-chain wallet), Meson, Nitro Router.
Oracle
Chainlink is the network’s official oracle provider, with 14 data feeds available.
Toolings
Available wallets include Tron-specific wallets and multichain wallets such as TronLink, TrustWallet, WalletConnect, OKX Wallet, Klever Wallet, TotalSig, and Bitget. RPC endpoints that provide services for Tron include Fastnode, PublicNode, Trongrid, dRPC, Ankr, NodeReal, and Getblocks, among the Full nodes described in section 1.2.
2.2 Liquidity Landscape
DEXs
Top 10 LPs by TVL across Tron (as of April 30th, 2025)
DEX |
Pair Name |
24H Volume ($) |
TVL ($) |
Sunswap V3 |
USDT/WTRX |
$65.95M |
$192.67M |
Sunswap V3 |
USDT/WTRX |
$2.27M |
$96.63M |
Sunswap V2 |
HTX/WTRX |
$102.98K |
$61.8M |
Sunswap V2 |
JST/USDT |
$593.31K |
$7.86M |
Sunswap V2 |
NFT/USDT |
$26.17K |
$5.65M |
Sunswap V2 |
BTT/USDT |
$85K |
$5.38M |
Sunswap V2 |
USDT/SUN |
$41.22K |
$5.01M |
Sunswap V3 |
sTRX/WTRX |
$78.54K |
$4.81M |
Sunswap V3 |
JST/USDT |
$3.65M |
$4.43M |
Sunswap V3 |
USDD/WTRX |
$32.49K |
$4.12M |
Source: Tron Pools, Gecko Terminal, April 30th, 2025
Other active pairs outside the top 10 include USDT/USDD ($9.3M 24h volume) and ETHB/USDT ($917.44K 24h volume). As shown in section 2.1, Sunswap is the DEX market leader.
Source: USDT swaps within <5% slippage, Sunswap, April 30th, 2025
USDT DEX liquidity is high for Wrapped TRX and represents the most liquid market. Alternative liquidity can be found for BTTC-Bridged EtTH, a bridged variant from the BitTorrent Chain (a Tron-based L2).
Lending Markets
Protocol |
Total Supplied |
Total Borrowed |
Utilization |
Supported Assets |
Just Lend |
$4,044,349,815 |
$163,028,669 |
4% |
20 |
(As of April 30th, 2025)
JustLend is the only lending protocol at the time of writing, with 26,629 suppliers and 3,163 borrowers. While the available supply is high, there is not a lot of user engagement in the lending market, as shown by a 4% utilization.
2.3 Ecosystem Resilience
Tron’s DeFi ecosystem is populated by a few protocols, with a single dominant player in key areas like DEX and lending, by Sunswap and JustLend. Major DApps and related assets such as JustLend, USDD, JustStables, and sTRX are governed by the JUST Network DAO. JST acts as the DAO’s governance token, allowing holders to decide on incentives, security, and pooled resource use. The consolidated management of these protocols consolidates management and responses to network-wide events. However, the lack of diversity in the overall ecosystem places a concentrated reliance on the JUST and SUN communities to manage these protocols to uphold confidence in the network effectively.
As shown in sections 1.1 and 1.2, Tron’s consensus and governance model relies on 27 node operators to produce blocks, propose network changes, and effect updates. This centralizes control over the network in the hands of a small set of SRs, while TRX holders can change the makeup of SRs through periodic elections; this does not exclude the potential for large stakers to have an outsized influence on voting outcomes. At the time of writing (May 1st,2025), the top 27 nodes received over 97% of the total votes cast.
2.4 Ecosystem Growth Potential
A TRON DAO Ecosystem Fund reported in 2022, worth $1B, was established that would provide funding for several programs aimed at growing the ecosystem, including:
- TRON/BTTC Integration Fund: This fund encourages growth and development between Tron and BTTC.
- TRON DAO Ventures: An investment team focused on early-stage projects.
- Developer Grants: investment aimed at supporting new project core teams.
- Industry relief fund in association with Binance.
To date, 15 investments have been made by the Tron DAO, with the most recent occurring in 2023.
USDT has continued to expand its supply on the chain, recently minting an additional $1B. Since the start of 2025, Tether has minted over $12B USDT. This increase indicates a growing interest in the chain; however, given current DeFi activity, this may likely be due to general USDT transfers between accounts.
Source: Token Terminal, Daily Fees, May 1st, 2025
This assessment is based on the high daily USDT transfers and trading volumes (2.3M and $60.6B for April 30th, 2025), low protocol fees, yet high network fees generated on Tron. When looking at protocol fees reported by DeFiLlama, the highest daily fee was $87,505 from Sunswap. When comparing Tron against other chains with similar or higher TVLs, more DeFi activity occurs on these chains, but the daily fees generated were consistently below Tron’s. Therefore, this is likely explained by Tron mainly being used to send and receive USDT between accounts.
The network’s continued growth heavily depends on USDT transfers rather than the DeFi market.
2.5 Major and Native Asset Outlook
TRX is the network’s native token, used in DPOS, rewards distribution, and to acquire resources necessary for network operations (Energy and Bandwidth). TRX tokenomics operates on a mint-and-burn mechanism. TRX is minted when a block is produced, and rewards are distributed (see section 1.1: Nodes). Currently, block rewards are set at 16 TRX and voting rewards at 160 TRX. The current supply is 94B.
Different bridged versions of ETH and onchain supply:
DEX Liquidity for these variants is limited, with only ETHB frequently traded (see section 2.2). A BTC derivative is also available on the chain, with a total supply of 17,545.
Stablecoins
USDT: 71,7B
TUSD: 167M
Recently, support for native USDC was discontinued by Circle. The justification for this was given as:
Our decision to discontinue support for USDC on TRON resulted from an enterprise-wide approach involving our company’s business organization, compliance, and other functions.
Viewed through a Bank Secrecy Act and EU anti‑money‑laundering lens, that retreat is readily explicable: the BSA’s risk‑based compliance framework and parallel EU directives expect stablecoin issuers to calibrate their controls to the perceived exposure of each payment rail. Because Tron is classified by a leading blockchain analytics firm as presenting heightened sanctions and illicit‑finance risk—and because the network’s technical design complicates address‑level freezes—Circle’s most defensible mitigation is to discontinue minting altogether, thereby pre‑empting a foreseeable compliance deficiency and demonstrating to U.S. and European supervisors that its enterprise‑wide risk assessment is both ongoing and actionable.
Maintaining support for a chain whose founder is simultaneously facing SEC litigation would have amplified that regulatory calculus. Circle’s decision to sever ties shields its stablecoin from potential secondary‑liability theories and reputational spill‑over while the litigation—currently paused while the parties explore settlement—remains unresolved.
USDD and USDJ are Tron-based collateralised stablecoins.
2.6 Legal Commentary
A constellation of corporate vehicles has been assembled to underpin the operation of the Tron ecosystem.
TRON Tech Limited, whose name appears in the copyright footer of tron.network, is identified as the site’s proprietor and administrator. Although it is said to be a British Virgin Islands entity used for administrative functions that support the ecosystem, searches of the customary public registries produce no verifiable incorporation record or shareholding data, leaving its precise corporate domicile and beneficial ownership opaque.
Tron Network Ltd., identified in the platform’s Privacy Policy as the data controller for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information, is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Its BVI status affords a high degree of confidentiality concerning shareholders and directors, complicating efforts to map the company’s ownership structure.
TRON Foundation Limited, the non‑profit entity created by Justin Sun in Singapore in July 2017 to steward the network’s early technical and community development, reportedly ceased operations upon the transition to the TRON DAO governance model.
Nonetheless, on March 22nd, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commenced a civil action in the Southern District of New York against Justin Sun and three affiliated companies—Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent Inc.). The complaint alleges the unregistered offer and sale of crypto‑asset securities, wash‑trading designed to inflate market demand, and the orchestration of concealed celebrity‑endorsement campaigns in violation of Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
As reflected in the joint letter filed on 26 February 2025, the parties in SEC v. Sun, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. asked Judge Ramos to stay the action for sixty days so they could pursue a potential resolution, emphasizing that a stay would conserve judicial resources and postpone any ruling on the defendants’ pending motion to dismiss. No settlement has yet been announced, and on 28 April 2025 the Court granted a second sixty-day stay. Defendants continue to assert that the lawsuit lacks merit and should be dismissed in its entirety.
There was a further stay of 60 days granted by the court on April 28. The suit has no inherent merit and we strongly believe it should be dismissed entirely.
The functions of TRON Tech Limited, Tron Network Ltd., and any other entity established to facilitate the network’s operations cannot be conclusively discerned absent authoritative clarification from Tron representatives. We are actively seeking supplementary corporate documentation and monitoring the federal docket for further developments in the SEC action; any material information obtained will be reported to the DAO without delay.
3. Onchain discoverability
Sources of Tron information include (but are not limited to):
Explorers: Tronscan
Analytics: Token Terminal, Dappradar, Geckoterminal, DeFiLlama, Arkham Intelligence, and Nansen
Data Indexers: Dune, TronWeb, and Tronql
4. Impact of AAVE Deployment
The lending market on Tron is underdeveloped, with JustLend representing the entire market. A Tron deployment would enable Aave to enter a very active ecosystem, given its status as one of the largest chains by TVL, stablecoin supply, and active users. Aave could benefit from its established market position by attracting more active DeFi users to the chain and introducing more multichain assets. The lending market TVL has not translated into active borrowing from existing users, with only a 4% utilization of the available supply. Additionally, available network assets are largely Tron-based, with some bridged variants with low onchain liquidity.
5. Asset suggestions
Three key criteria influence our methodology for onboarding assets: prior successful integration, risk assessment within the Aave ecosystem, asset TVL on the network, and the available liquidity relative to the total asset TVL.
Asset |
Onchain Supply |
DEX Liquidity |
USDT |
71.7B |
$61M |
WTRX |
1.63B |
$234M |
These have been selected due to being the most readily available and utilized on the chain. Other major assets on the network, such as ETHB, WETH, USDJ, USDD, and BTC, have not been considered, given security considerations that would require further assessment, e.g., bridged variants/mechanisms and stablecoin collateralization. The suggested supply cap for WTRX should be determined following a risk assessment.
Disclaimer
Note: This assessment follows the LLR-Aave Framework, a comprehensive methodology for asset onboarding and parameterization in Aave V3. This framework is continuously updated and available here.
This review was independently prepared by LlamaRisk, a community-led decentralized organization funded in part by the Aave DAO. LlamaRisk is not directly affiliated with the protocol(s) reviewed in this assessment and did not receive any compensation from the protocol(s) or their affiliated entities for this work.
The information provided should not be construed as legal, financial, tax, or professional advice.