Crypto Billionaire Justin Sun Teases Gas-Free Stablecoin Launch by Year’s End

Crypto billionaire Justin Sun has announced plans to launch a gas-free stablecoin by the end of the year.

The Tron founder aims to develop a solution that enables peer-to-peer transfers without the need for gas tokens, making transactions completely free for users.

While the exact mechanics of the stablecoin solution have not been disclosed, Sun intends to integrate it on the Tron blockchain in the fourth quarter, he said in a recent post on X.

“Our team is developing a new solution that enables gas-free stablecoin transfers,” he wrote.

“In other words, transfers can be made without paying any gas tokens, with the fees being entirely covered by the stablecoins themselves.”

Sun’s Stablecoin to Support Other Blockchains As Well

Following the Tron implementation, he plans to expand its availability to Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible public chains.

Sun believes that gas-free stablecoins have the potential to revolutionize the way companies offer stablecoin services.

By covering the transaction fees with the stablecoins themselves, he envisions a more accessible and widespread adoption of blockchain technology.

We anticipate launching this service in Q4 of this year. I believe that similar services will greatly facilitate large companies in deploying stablecoin services on the blockchain, elevating blockchain mass adoption to a new level.

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) July 6, 2024

Tron currently dominates the peer-to-peer stablecoin transfer market, processing two to three times more volume than its closest competitor, Ethereum.

The introduction of Tron’s gas-free stablecoin solution could provide competition for existing offerings such as PayPal’s PYUSD, which enables certain US users to make cross-border payments without fees.

Additionally, Circle’s USD Coin on Ethereum’s layer 2 Base via Coinbase Wallet already allows for free transfers.

Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Binance recently discontinued their support for USDC on Tron, possibly motivating Tron to develop its own solution.

Tron is also exploring the development of a Bitcoin layer-2 solution that would support a wrapped version of Tether, which could facilitate a significant influx of capital into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

In the meantime, Tron is utilizing cross-chain protocols to bridge USDT and other tokens between Bitcoin and Tron networks.

Stablecoin Holdings Drop Among Investors

As reported, stablecoin holdings among institutional and retail investors decreased from 50.2% in December to 42.8% in May.

On the other hand, Bitcoin continues to be the largest single asset held, accounting for 26% of their total assets in the leading cryptocurrency as of May 2024.

Retail traders, similar to institutions, continue to show a preference for BTC over ETH, despite the renewed optimism for ETH Spot ETFs.

However, institutional positions in BTC and ETH are more concentrated compared to those of retail traders, with holdings of 39.4% and 20.9% respectively as of May.

Following the SEC’s approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024, institutional Bitcoin holdings have consistently increased, while their Ether positions have seen a surprising decrease.

This suggests that institutions view Bitcoin as the more attractive option, potentially due to concerns about Ether Spot ETFs not including staking rewards.

In contrast, retail traders demonstrated their ability to time the market during the March-April 2024 correction.