TRX is the native token of the TRON network. It pays for transaction fees, secures the network through staking, and grants governance rights through the Voting Right (TRON Power) it produces when staked. Beyond its role as the network's fuel, TRX is also the underlying collateral and liquidity benchmark across the TRON DeFi ecosystem.

This page explains how the TRX supply expands through block rewards and contracts through fee burning, the dual-track design that balances these forces, and how staking integrates with the consensus and resource models.

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Prerequisites

Accounts and keys

Supply and distribution

According to CoinMarketCap and Binance Research, the initial TRX supply was distributed roughly as follows:

Allocation	Share	Amount
Private sale and early investors	25.7%	25.7 billion TRX
Public sale	~40%	40 billion TRX
TRON DAO (ecosystem development)	34.3%	34.3 billion TRX

The total supply is not fixed. TRON uses a dual-track adjustment mechanism: new TRX is minted as block production rewards and voter rewards (incentivizing participation in consensus), while transaction fee burning continuously removes TRX from circulation (creating deflationary pressure). The net change in supply on any given day depends on which of these two forces is larger.

What TRX is used for

TRX serves four roles on the network:

Transaction fees. TRX pays for the byte size of transactions (Bandwidth) and the computation of smart contract execution (Energy). When an account does not hold enough of these resources, TRX is burned at fixed rates to cover the shortfall.

Staking. Staking TRX produces system resources (Bandwidth or Energy) and TRON Power (TP), the unit of voting weight. Staking is reversible: an unstake initiates a 14-day waiting period, after which the staker can withdraw the TRX back to liquid form.

Governance. Each staked TRX produces 1 TP. TP is used to vote for the 27 Super Representatives (SRs) who produce blocks and validate transactions. Voters receive a share of the block production and voter reward streams proportional to their votes cast, after the SR's brokerage rate is deducted.

DeFi infrastructure. TRX is the underlying collateral for lending protocols (such as JustLend DAO) and decentralized exchanges (such as SunSwap), and the issuance backbone for stablecoins (USDD).

Inflation: block rewards

Each new block produces two reward streams paid in TRX:

Reward	Recipient	Per block	Chain parameter
Block production reward	The SR producing the block	8 TRX (8,000,000 sun)	#5 (`getWitnessPayPerBlock`)
Voter reward	Top 127 SRs (shared by vote weight)	128 TRX (128,000,000 sun)	#31 (`getWitness127PayPerBlock`)

Both values are governed by on-chain proposals and can be adjusted by the committee. Query the current values via POST /wallet/getchainparameters and look up by API key.

Each SR sets a brokerage rate (default 20%) that determines what share of the block production and voter rewards they retain before distributing the rest to their voters. Voters claim their accumulated share through a WithdrawBalanceContract transaction.

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Voter reward eligibility
The voter reward goes to the top 127 SRs (the active 27 plus the 100 SR Partners), distributed proportional to votes received. SR Partners earn rewards but do not produce blocks.

Deflation: fee burning

When an account performs an operation, the network first attempts to deduct the cost from the account's available Bandwidth and Energy. If those resources are insufficient, TRX is burned at fixed rates:

Resource	Unit price	TRX equivalent
Bandwidth	1,000 sun per byte	0.001 TRX per byte
Energy	100 sun per Energy	0.0001 TRX per Energy

These burn rates are themselves chain parameters and can be adjusted through proposals. Some operations also incur direct TRX costs that cannot be paid with resources — for example, the account creation fee and the multi-signature fee. These are also chain parameters.

The burn mechanism does two things at once: it ensures that every operation has a real cost (preventing spam), and it permanently removes TRX from circulation, putting downward pressure on supply.

Net supply trend

Block rewards add a fixed amount of TRX per block. Fee burning removes a variable amount that depends on network activity. Whether the supply expands or contracts on any given day depends on which is larger.

According to TRONSCAN supply data, the total TRX supply rose from genesis through approximately mid-2022 (peaking around 102 billion), then entered a sustained deflationary trend. On most days, fee burning exceeds new issuance by millions of TRX, leading to a net contraction of supply.

The strength of this deflationary trend depends on:

Network activity — more transactions mean more fee burning
Staking participation — more staked TRX means more accounts have free resources, reducing burn
Chain parameter values — proposals can adjust burn rates and reward amounts

Consensus and incentives

TRON uses Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). Through community voting, 27 SRs are elected per round to produce blocks and validate transactions. The economic incentives align participants with network health:

SRs earn block production rewards by producing blocks reliably
Voters earn a share of voter rewards by staking and voting
Malicious or absent SRs can lose votes (and thus rewards), creating accountability
Stakers who hold TP can also use Bandwidth and Energy without burning TRX, aligning their incentives with sustained network use

For the full mechanism — block production schedule, solidification, and proposal lifecycle — see Consensus and DPoS.

Ecosystem

The economic activity that drives both reward distribution and fee burning comes from the TRON ecosystem:

Stablecoins: TRON is a primary network for major stablecoins, including TRC-20 USDT (Tether), TUSD (TrueUSD), and USDD (a decentralized stablecoin native to TRON). Stablecoin transfer volume drives a large share of daily Bandwidth and Energy consumption.
DeFi: Lending protocols (JustLend DAO), decentralized exchanges (SunSwap), and yield protocols all use TRX as collateral or liquidity, anchoring TRX demand to ecosystem usage.
DApps: Games, social platforms, and other decentralized applications generate ongoing transaction load.

Each of these activities consumes resources or burns TRX directly, contributing to the deflationary side of the supply equation while increasing the utility of holding TRX.

Related resources

Resource Model: Bandwidth & Energy — How Bandwidth, Energy, and TRON Power work
Consensus and DPoS — Block production, solidification, rewards, and on-chain governance
Staking on the TRON network — Stake, unstake, and withdraw mechanics
Voting for SRs — How to use TRON Power