According to Boston Consulting Group («Stablecoin Payments: The Truth Behind the Numbers»), TRON remains the dominant settlement network for stablecoins, handling 60–80% of all payment flows.

In 2025, TRON's share of real economic stablecoin flows dropped by around 14% by the end of the year — total volumes continued to grow. The new volume is being generated by a different type of participant with different operational requirements.

In this article, we explain what is happening at the network level, why the institutional and platform segments are shifting toward Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon, and what this means for businesses building payment infrastructure.

 

TRON handles 60-80% of stablecoin payments. But the nature of the new volume is changing

 

 

TRON remains the leader in absolute settlement volumes. Low fees, deep USDT liquidity, and infrastructure optimized for high-frequency transfers make the network an obvious choice for P2P flows, remittances, and retail crypto transactions.

A drop of around 14 percentage points in market share alongside growing absolute volumes means the market is expanding through segments that TRON does not serve as effectively. The new volume is being generated by institutions, platforms, and regulated businesses that are building settlement infrastructure.

 

For this segment, the priorities look different:

 

Priority

Why it matters for the institutional/platform segment

Compliance readiness

Regulatory requirements for transaction transparency

Operational integration

APIs, analytics, reconciliation with internal systems

Smart contract capabilities

Payment automation, conditional execution, platform logic

Mature ecosystem

Tooling, audits, developer support

 

These characteristics explain why Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon are capturing a growing share of enterprise flows.

 

Different networks, different jobs

 

BCG describes what is happening as segmentation by job.

TRON handles scale — high-frequency transfers with a focus on cost. Other networks take on complexity: B2B settlements, platform payouts, and in-app payments.

 

TRON works for everyday retail payments:

  • Remittances and P2P transfers
  • Retail crypto flows with high fee sensitivity
  • High-frequency transactions with deep USDT liquidity

 

Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon for more specialized payouts:

 

  • B2B settlements with compliance requirements
  • Platform payouts with automated logic
  • App-embedded payments
  • Use cases that require smart contract capabilities

 

The choice of network is determined by the specific case — its frequency, amount, regulatory context, and integration requirements.

 

Why operating on a single network is becoming less practical

 

Blockchain infrastructure continues to develop. Businesses that are operationally tied to a single network take on infrastructure risk that is not directly related to their core activity.

Diversifying settlement rails provides operational flexibility: the ability to route transactions across networks depending on the payment type, amount, and compliance requirements. Different networks are objectively better suited to different jobs.

BCG describes what is happening as exactly that — diversification: "this is diversification at the edges, not the displacement of the dominant rail." TRON's absolute volume is growing. New volume is being distributed across networks based on their comparative advantages.

 

What this means operationally

 

If your business accepts stablecoin payments or is building settlement infrastructure, the BCG data points to a few practical conclusions.

Network choice is an operational question: what use case does this transaction serve, and which infrastructure best fits its requirements. 

  • For P2P flows and high-frequency payouts, TRON remains a sound choice. 
  • For B2B settlements, platform payouts, and compliance-heavy use cases, other networks offer more suitable infrastructure.

 

The growing need for cross-network interoperability reflects structural changes in who is using stablecoins and for what.

Businesses that already work across multiple networks have more flexibility in managing funds and adapting to infrastructure changes.

 

​​Finassets: infrastructure partner for crypto payments

 

The Finassets team has been working with blockchain since 2014. Over that time, we have seen networks, fees, the regulatory environment, and merchant requirements change — and we have built operational solutions for each of those stages.

If you are evaluating which infrastructure fits your business, get in touch with the Finassets team.

We will look at your case and suggest a specific configuration.