TRON ECO new breakthrough in 2025: Deepening the value of DeFi applications, successive explosions in the Meme ecosystem, and forward-looking layout in the AI track

Looking back at 2025, TRON has made a key leap from being a benchmark in the crypto industry to a new global financial infrastructure, thanks to a series of groundbreaking achievements. Its strong value creation ability and exponential ecological evolution speed continue to attract attention from the global financial market.

In the stablecoin sector, TRON demonstrates absolute dominance. The on-chain USDT circulation has continuously broken historical records, surpassing $80 billion and steadily moving towards the $100 billion target, with its dominant position unshakeable.

In the global financial market, TRON has entered the U.S. stock market, joining the ranks of mainstream finance and building a bridge connecting the crypto world with traditional capital. It has also been selected as one of the designated public chains for the official GDP release in the U.S., with its authority and reliability recognized at the highest level, marking its deep integration into the global core financial infrastructure.

At the same time, the TRON ECO ecosystem has achieved leapfrog breakthroughs across multiple tracks: benchmark DeFi infrastructures like JustLend DAO and SUN.io continue to iterate and upgrade, solidifying the foundational value of the ecosystem; the meme issuance platform SunPump drives a new asset matrix that repeatedly ignites the market, continuously activating network traffic and completing value conversion; AINFT is making inroads into the AI frontier, anchoring new engines for future ecological growth.

Currently, the TRON ECO ecosystem has formed a mature ecological system characterized by diverse symbiosis and efficient operation of the value flywheel, relying on core products such as DeFi protocols, AI infrastructure, and new meme applications. Each business segment is precisely focused and resonates in synergy, building a mutually empowering growth flywheel that not only provides core support for the prosperity and long-term development of the TRON ecosystem but also injects continuous momentum for its sustained leadership in the industry, leading the crypto field to explore new development spaces.

DeFi Sector Value Continues to Deepen: Steady Iteration and Innovative Breakthroughs

As the financial core engine of the TRON ecosystem, the DeFi sector achieved leapfrog development in 2025 through continuous iteration and innovation of core protocols, successfully transitioning from basic functionality provision to the ecological value hub, constructing a decentralized financial service system that is both secure and efficient, as well as innovative.

Core DeFi products within the TRON ecosystem have all made new breakthroughs: JST has advanced large-scale buybacks and burns, strengthening asset value support; SUN.io has added derivatives SunX, enriching the product matrix; BTTC has optimized the token model, enhancing ecological adaptability; WINkLink continues to expand data service scenarios, solidifying the foundational empowerment of on-chain applications.

Currently, TRON has built a well-defined and efficiently coordinated DeFi infrastructure matrix: SUN.io serves as the liquidity core, providing convenient fund exchange and circulation services; JustLend DAO acts as the lending hub, assisting in capital appreciation and allocation optimization; BTTC undertakes cross-chain responsibilities, ensuring free flow of funds; WINkLink oracles empower DApps with real-time off-chain data, enhancing the security and reliability of DeFi applications. The four core applications work together to create a multi-dimensional integrated service system of "liquidity supply - asset appreciation - cross-chain interoperability - security empowerment," providing strong support for ecological development.

According to DeFiLlama data, as of December 25, the total locked value (TVL) of TRON's on-chain DeFi has exceeded $4.4 billion, consistently ranking among the top five public chains globally. This data not only confirms the solid foundation and strong resilience of TRON's DeFi ecosystem but also reflects the market's high recognition of its technical strength, ecological layout, and future potential.

JustLend DAO: From Lending Protocol to Ecological Value Hub

As a core pillar of TRON's financial infrastructure, JustLend DAO has achieved leapfrog development from a lending protocol to an ecological value hub through continuous functional integration and strategic upgrades, constructing a full-chain decentralized financial solution that integrates asset lending appreciation, staking services, and Gas cost optimization.

Currently, JustLend DAO has completed deep integration of multiple core DeFi modules, forming an integrated product matrix covering lending markets (SBM), liquidity staking sTRX (Staked TRX), and energy rental (Energy Rental), providing users with comprehensive and diverse on-chain financial services.

Beyond core products, JustLend DAO focuses on user experience. In March this year, it innovatively launched the GasFree smart wallet, allowing users to directly deduct fees from transferred tokens, breaking the industry limitation of "having to hold native tokens to trade." Additionally, JustLend DAO launched a 90% transfer fee subsidy program, enabling users to pay only about 1 USDT in fees for each GasFree transfer of USDT, regardless of the amount.

In mid-October, JustLend DAO officially implemented a large-scale JST buyback and burn mechanism, clearly stating that all net income from the protocol and over $10 million in revenue from the USDD multi-chain ecosystem would be fully included in the JST buyback and burn fund pool. Subsequently, JustLend DAO extracted approximately $59.087 million in revenue from existing earnings and initiated the first round of burns, executing the first operation at a 30% ratio (approximately $17.726 million), corresponding to the destruction of 559.8 million JST, accounting for 5.66% of the total token supply; the remaining 70% will be executed quarterly.

This buyback and burn initiative optimizes the economic model of JST at the foundational level: on one hand, it actively reduces the circulating supply, enhancing token scarcity through deflationary effects, solidifying long-term value support; on the other hand, it deeply binds ecological revenue with the interests of token holders.

In the process of bridging traditional finance and the on-chain ecosystem, JustLend DAO has also made breakthrough progress. As early as the end of June this year, TRON's U.S. listed company completed the staking operation of 365 million TRX through the JustLend DAO platform. This milestone event not only fully validated the platform's industry-leading levels of compliance, security, and large asset handling capabilities but also established JustLend DAO as the core channel for traditional compliant capital to enter the TRON ecosystem.

As of December 19, the total locked value (TVL) on the JustLend DAO platform has reached $6.37 billion, consistently ranking among the top three global lending protocols. Among them, the supply asset scale in the SBM lending market has reached $3.92 billion; the sTRX liquidity staking sector has attracted over 9.2 billion TRX; and the energy rental service, due to its practicality, has covered 72,000 users. These data fully demonstrate the platform's strong ecological value and wide user recognition.

SUN.io: Innovative Evolution and Ecological Expansion of the Liquidity Hub

As the largest asset issuance and trading hub in the TRON ecosystem, SUN.io successfully constructed a complete product matrix covering four core businesses: DEX trading, stablecoin exchange, meme asset issuance, and derivative contracts through continuous product innovation and iteration in 2025, becoming a key liquidity infrastructure supporting the efficient circulation of assets in the TRON ecosystem.

Currently, the SUN.io ecosystem includes product components such as the DEX platform SunSwap, stablecoin exchange SunCurve and PSM, meme issuance tool SunPump, and decentralized perpetual contract SunX (formerly SunPerp), enabling one-stop access to multi-scenario financial trading services.

This year, SUN.io has achieved remarkable results across its core businesses.

In the core trading sector, SunSwap has handled about 90% of the asset trading volume on the TRON network, with daily trading volumes consistently above $100 million, serving as the core channel for asset liquidity within the TRON ecosystem.

In the innovative asset sector, SunPump has continuously ignited the meme asset ecological boom, becoming a key engine for activating ecological vitality.

In the derivatives sector, in September, the first native on-chain perpetual contract platform SunX was launched in the TRON ecosystem. This platform not only fills the gap in derivative services within the TRON ecosystem but also redefines the trading experience of DeFi derivatives with institutional-level risk control standards. As of now, SunX's cumulative trading volume has surpassed $16 billion, ranking among the top 11 in the global decentralized perpetual contract sector.

Additionally, as the governance token of the SUN.io ecosystem, SUN has made significant progress in its globalization and compliance layout this year. First, it listed on the compliant exchange Hashkey Global in March, marking an important step in its compliance layout; in April, it was listed on the globally renowned compliant exchange Kraken, attracting global institutions and quality individual traders, significantly enhancing its liquidity and international influence; in September, South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit listed trading pairs SUN/KRW (Korean Won) and SUN/USDT, igniting the South Korean market. This series of layouts has not only greatly improved SUN's compliance recognition but also significantly enhanced its market liquidity and global influence.

From DEX trading to meme ecological construction, and to the expansion of the derivatives market, SUN.io has built a diverse growth curve through continuous product innovation and scenario expansion. It is reported that SUN.io is brewing a series of important upgrades, with relevant progress expected to be gradually announced soon.

BTTC: Upgrading Iteration of Cross-Chain Interconnectivity and Token Deflation

As the core hub of TRON's cross-chain infrastructure, the cross-chain protocol BTTC completed a series of strategic upgrades and iterations in 2025, achieving breakthrough improvements in network security and cross-chain transmission efficiency.

In June this year, BTTC officially upgraded to version 2.0, redesigning the cross-chain technology architecture through modular layering and standardized process decomposition. This version transforms the cross-chain process "source chain request initiation ------ information transmission ------ target chain execution" into a universal logic and standardized protocol, corresponding to the construction of a three-layer architecture: Root Contracts (root chain layer: cross-chain request initiation) ------ Delivery (relay layer: information transmission) ------ BitTorrent Chain (execution layer: DApp application running platform layer), while adopting a PoS consensus mechanism. Ultimately, BTTC has built a secure, efficient, and scalable cross-chain network, providing a solid technical foundation for asset flow and application collaboration across multiple chains.

At the same time, BTTC 2.0 has also optimized the core economic model of the BTT token: by controlling the total supply, it reduces the total supply of BTT, enhancing token scarcity; and it sets a stable staking benchmark yield of 6%, supporting BTT holders to participate in network governance and security maintenance through staking. This design not only enhances the participation enthusiasm of BTTC network nodes and network protection capabilities but also injects continuous momentum into the long-term value of BTT.

On July 29, BTTC further launched an upgraded Layer 2 expansion plan aimed at enhancing network scalability and user experience while maintaining decentralization. This plan is compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem, supporting seamless migration of existing applications and providing users with a high-throughput, low-cost trading environment.

Relying on continuous technological innovation iterations and ecological collaboration, BTTC has upgraded to a core hub of multi-chain value interconnectivity: externally, it opens up asset transfer channels between TRON and mainstream public chains such as Ethereum and BNB Chain, attracting external funds, projects, and users to efficiently flow into the TRON ecosystem. Internally, it provides cross-chain circulation outlets for TRON's meme assets, DeFi products, etc., helping them expand into other public chain ecological markets and achieve cross-domain radiation of ecological influence.

WINkLink: A Data Bridge Connecting On-Chain and Off-Chain Worlds

As the core oracle infrastructure of the TRON ecosystem, WINkLink empowers DApps with real-time off-chain data, providing accurate price feeds and verifiable random numbers, building a trust bridge between blockchain and the real world. With WINkLink, developers can access precise price data and on-chain information, thereby enhancing the security and reliability of on-chain applications such as DeFi.

In August, WINkLink announced the completion of a comprehensive ecological upgrade, officially opening to global developers. This upgrade will provide higher security levels and more reliable and scalable on-chain data services for diverse application scenarios such as DeFi, NFTs, and RWAs on the TRON network.

This year, WINkLink has integrated with dozens of CEXs and wallets: in the exchange sector, there are MEXC, CoinEX, WEEK, etc.; in wallet integration, WINkLink has established deep cooperation with multi-chain wallets such as GuardaWallet, Atomic Wallet, Klever, and hardware wallets like ELLIPAL and OneKey, providing users with a safer and smoother Web3 self-custody and on-chain experience, jointly promoting the large-scale application of the TRON ecosystem.

Meme Ecosystem Breakthrough: SunPump Repeatedly Ignites the Meme Ecosystem, Continuously Activating Market Vitality

If DeFi is the "value skeleton" of the TRON ecosystem, then the meme ecosystem that fully erupted in 2025 is the "traffic engine" driving ecological vitality. Through a model of "low-threshold issuance + full-chain empowerment," SunPump achieved an upgrade from a "Meme launch platform" to a "Meme ecosystem traffic hub + Meme ecosystem construction platform" in 2025.

Driven by the core platform SunPump, the TRON ecosystem witnessed multiple rounds of meme fervor in 2025.

First, in mid-March, SunPump launched multiple meme coins (such as KZN, $Knight, etc.) that achieved hundredfold increases, creating a significant wealth effect and successfully igniting the meme season in the TRON ecosystem, quickly capturing industry attention.

Subsequently, the ecosystem introduced multiple support measures: on March 19, TRON founder Justin Sun announced a waiver of meme asset trading fees for six months; on the same day, SunPump launched the AI token issuance tool SunGenX, supporting "issue tokens with a tweet," lowering the issuance threshold to a minimum and pushing the daily token issuance on the platform close to 700. On March 23, HTX and Poloniex launched a Memecoin support program, providing a fast listing channel for projects meeting trading volume standards (projects achieving a trading volume of $1 million for three consecutive days can list on Poloniex with one click, and those reaching $10 million can list on HTX), further broadening the liquidity and exposure of meme assets.

Through official full transaction fee subsidies, AI tool empowerment, and exchange collaboration, the vitality of the TRON meme ecosystem has been released exponentially.

From April to May, the meme heat continued to ferment. SunPump advanced through "trading competition incentives + CEX alliance resources," vigorously supporting the meme ecosystem. First, on April 7, SunPump, in collaboration with HTX, launched a month-long "TRON Meme Carnival" meme token trading incentive competition, ultimately attracting over 42,000 users to participate, with total trading volume exceeding 40.57 million USDT and nearly 20 million exposures across the network, achieving breakthroughs in both traffic and trading depth; in May, SunPump initiated the "CEX Alliance Program," collaborating with leading exchanges such as BingX, Bitget, Bybit, and HTX to provide fast listing recommendation channels, joint marketing, and comprehensive support for ecological activities (such as airdrops, trading competitions, etc.), accelerating the TRON meme ecosystem towards marketization and systematization.

In July, the TRON meme ecosystem achieved a milestone breakthrough: the TRON ecosystem officially integrated with Binance Wallet and the Alpha Zone, with the Alpha Zone simultaneously launching mainstream meme coins SUNDOG and PePe under SunPump, and initiating a trading incentive competition worth $4 million. This move not only represents Binance's authoritative recognition of the potential of the SunPump platform project but also opens a core entrance for ecological meme assets to the global mainstream trading market, laying a solid foundation for more quality projects to land in the Binance ecosystem and sprint towards the CEX main site.

In October, following the Chinese concept meme trend, SunPump and @Agent_SunGenX quickly upgraded to support the creation of Chinese memes, allowing Chinese creators to create narrative tokens exclusive to Chinese, enriching the diverse expression of meme culture. In November, the AI assistant SunAgent in the TRON ecosystem launched a newly upgraded version, supporting users to deploy meme coins with one-click through conversational chat, further lowering the technical threshold and activating the enthusiasm for creation among the masses.

Through "official policy support + CEX resource empowerment + diverse activity incentives + continuous product innovation" and other multi-dimensional support, SunPump has built an industry-leading full-cycle support ecosystem for memes, covering the entire chain from initial issuance, listing, exchange to long-term operation, forming a complete development system for the meme economic ecosystem. It not only provides an efficient growth channel for quality meme projects but has also become the preferred highland for meme issuance and a quality project incubation cradle for global users.

More importantly, SunPump is not an isolated entity but can achieve deep linkage and symbiotic coexistence with TRON's core DeFi products: for example, meme projects complete trading circulation through SUN.io, realize asset appreciation through JustLend DAO, and construct a virtuous cycle of "traffic import - capital accumulation - value enhancement." This ecological synergy model successfully promotes the meme ecosystem from being purely emotion-driven to becoming a core value pillar supporting the sustainable development of the TRON ecosystem.

Today, the meme ecosystem has grown into a core growth pole driving traffic for the TRON ecosystem and enhancing global attention, reshaping the asset structure on the TRON chain while building a unique ecological culture that combines wealth effects and community cohesion, resonating complementarily with the DeFi "value skeleton," injecting continuous growth momentum into the ecosystem.

As of December 25, the SunPump platform has created over 100,000 meme tokens, with a total issuance of 101,984 tokens, among which over 1,880 tokens have successfully listed on SunSwap, and the platform protocol has captured cumulative earnings of approximately 38.06 million TRX, fully demonstrating its ecological vitality and value capture ability.

Strategic Layout in the AI Frontier: AINFT Upgrades AI Infrastructure, SunAgent Reshapes On-Chain Intelligent Interaction Entry

With the ecological value foundation solidified in the DeFi sector and the meme track igniting ecological enthusiasm, the TRON ecosystem has further laid out the new frontier of "AI + Web3" integration, showcasing its forward-looking strategic vision in supporting new technologies and ecological expansion.

Among them, the strategic upgrade of APENFT to "AINFT" is a key step, successfully transforming into a new generation of AI infrastructure base, building a solid AI technology framework for the entire ecosystem and laying the foundational groundwork for the large-scale landing of AI applications. At the same time, the AI assistant SunAgent continues to iterate and upgrade, supporting users to complete on-chain operations automatically through conversational chat, significantly improving interaction response efficiency and user experience, becoming an efficient link to the TRON ecosystem.

From the AI infrastructure built by AINFT to the user entry created by SunAgent, TRON has formed a dual-driven pattern of "AI underlying technology infrastructure + front-end user AI interaction entry": AINFT provides developers with technical frameworks, computing power, and data support, incubating rich AI application scenarios; SunAgent lowers the user usage threshold, conveying the convenience of AI technology to a vast number of users, forming a positive cycle of "developer innovation - user participation - ecological prosperity."

This layout not only allows TRON to occupy a first-mover advantage in the "AI + Blockchain integration" track but also extends the ecological value boundary through technological innovation, injecting intelligent momentum into existing tracks such as DeFi and memes, promoting TRON's comprehensive upgrade from a "decentralized financial ecosystem" to a "decentralized intelligent ecosystem," and opening a new growth chapter for the next generation of Web3 ecology.

AINFT: Strategic Leap from NFT Trading to AI Infrastructure

TRON's leading NFT platform APENFT has adopted the new brand identity "AINFT" on October 9 this year, completing a strategic leap from "NFT trading platform" to "crypto AI infrastructure," marking the official landing of TRON's layout in the "AI + Web3" track.

AINFT aims to "become the core AI infrastructure and AI Agent application innovation center of the TRON ecosystem," focusing on three core missions: supporting large-scale deployment of AI Agents, empowering efficient training of AI models, and promoting compliant issuance of AI assets, ultimately constructing a new generation of decentralized crypto AI ecosystem where "AI Agents operate autonomously, data rights and responsibilities are clear, and the economic system is self-circulating."

As a key move for TRON to position itself in the new economic field of "AI + Crypto," AINFT will innovate and reconstruct the value dimension of NFTs—upgrading NFTs from traditional proof of ownership assets to core carriers of AI data, computing power resources, and application permissions, successfully opening the integration channel between AI technology and the blockchain ecosystem, helping TRON seize first-mover advantages in the next generation of Web3 intelligent tracks.

AINFT builds a complete AI ecological service system covering AI Agent "development - issuance - application - model training" through four core product lines, which mainly include: AINFT Agent Framework, AINFT Nova, AINFT AgenTX, and AINFT Grid.

Among them, AINFT Agent Framework is an AI Agent development framework that will provide developers with a modular AI Agent development toolkit, supporting rapid construction of dedicated AI Agent applications; AINFT Nova is a one-click AI Agent issuance platform that supports users to "create AI Agents + issue accompanying tokens with one click," seamlessly integrating with social platforms like Twitter and Discord; AINFT AgenTX is an AI-driven DeFi trading framework focusing on on-chain financial DeFi scenarios, supporting the rapid construction of AI financial assistants with data analysis and strategy execution capabilities; AINFT Grid is a decentralized AI model training platform that integrates idle computing power from global users, forming a decentralized AI computing power pool to provide low-cost computing power support for AI model training.

In terms of product landing, AINFT will prioritize building a Web3-native AI aggregation platform, positioning itself as "the Poe or Perplexity of the Web3 field," dedicated to becoming the core bridge and key hub connecting the Web3 ecosystem with cutting-edge AI services. This platform will aggregate mainstream AI large models such as OpenAI GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok, supporting users and developers to directly use cryptocurrency for payment, creating a "one-stop Web3 AI service entry."

It is reported that this platform is expected to officially launch in early 2026, further strengthening TRON's technical barriers and ecological advantages in the AI + Web3 track.

AI Assistant SunAgent: An Efficient Intelligent AI Assistant Linking the TRON Ecosystem Entry

In addition to the AI infrastructure provided by AINFT, there is already a landed AI application product within the TRON ecosystem—AI assistant SunAgent.

On November 24, SunAgent completed a core iteration from "AI conversational chatbot" to "on-chain intelligent interaction assistant." With this product, users can automatically complete corresponding on-chain operations by simply inputting text commands (such as "stake, exchange, transfer"), completely overturning the cumbersome processes of traditional on-chain operations and achieving an efficient experience of "command execution."

The core innovation of SunAgent lies in integrating "cutting-edge natural language understanding technology" with "the full ecological scene functions of TRON," constructing an intelligent service system covering multiple financial scenarios:

On one hand, SunAgent seamlessly connects all ecological applications of TRON, deeply linking core DeFi and meme scenarios such as SUN.io, SunPump, JustLend DAO, and tool applications like the TronLink wallet, achieving "one-stop" coverage of high-frequency on-chain operations; on the other hand, users do not need to master professional on-chain knowledge; they can simply express their needs in natural language (such as "transfer 100 TRX to a specified address," "complete the exchange of TRX and USDD on SunSwap," "stake TRX to obtain stable income in sTRX"), and the AI can automatically parse the intent, match the corresponding application, complete parameter configuration and process execution, executing the operation process without any manual clicks or professional operational knowledge.

Now, whether it is financial operations such as asset transfers, trading exchanges, staking mining, or meme token issuance, or ecological participation scenarios such as community voting and on-chain data queries, users can efficiently complete them with one click through the AI assistant SunAgent, truly achieving "simplification of complex operations and ease of professional processes," significantly lowering the threshold for ecological participation.

Additionally, relying on the SunAgent technical framework, the TRON ecosystem has incubated multiple vertical scene AI applications: for example, the AI meme issuance platform SunGenX is generated based on this framework, supporting users to "issue tokens with a tweet"; the AI digital person SunLumi (AI digital person) is also built on the SunAgent framework, possessing intelligent dialogue, social interaction, and content creation capabilities, able to automatically respond to social media comments, output industry insights, and participate in live interactions, becoming an intelligent collaborative partner for Web3 community operations.

TRON ECO: Ecological Collaborative Flywheel Drives, Empowering the Future of Global Financial Infrastructure

Looking back at 2025, the TRON ECO has achieved multi-dimensional breakthrough development, successfully constructing a collaborative growth flywheel of "DeFi-Meme-AI"—the three core sectors do not evolve in isolation but form a closed-loop growth system through deep complementarity and interaction, embodying the core underlying logic for the ecosystem's leapfrog development of "DeFi sedimenting value, Meme igniting heat, AI driving innovation."

Among them, the DeFi sector, with JustLend DAO as the value hub and SUN.io as the liquidity network, has built a secure and efficient asset storage and capital circulation mechanism, achieving continuous sedimentation and appreciation of funds, solidifying the "value base" for the flywheel's rotation; the meme ecosystem, relying on SunPump's low-threshold issuance and full-chain empowerment, continuously ignites market sentiment, attracting massive retail users and external funds to enter, injecting an endless "traffic engine" into the flywheel; the AI layout, with AINFT as the technical base and SunAgent as the interaction entry, continuously expands the value boundaries of assets and applications, providing the "innovation core" for the flywheel's iterative upgrade.

Looking ahead, as the deep integration of the three sectors continues to deepen and the ecological boundaries continue to expand, the TRON ECO will enter a new stage of development. While solidifying its core positioning as "global financial infrastructure," each track of the ecosystem will achieve a flourishing and collaborative resonance, further releasing the potential for scaled value and writing a new chapter of ecological growth in the "AI + Web3" era.