Tron (TRX) has surged 10% in the past 24 hours, defying a stagnation in the price of both Bitcoin and Ethereum around local lows. For context, BTC and ETH have both gained around 1% in the past day.
TRX’s rally comes as the blockchain has been seeing an ongoing pivot to offer decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to its users. This has been a successful pivot thus far, with blockchain analytics companies noting a strong uptick in transaction volumes.
Tron’s 10% performance on Saturday also comes shortly after a critical report by The Verge. The report suggested that there are large internal struggles within the Tron Foundation and BitTorrent, which has been acquired by the foundation.
Related Reading: Ethereum Transaction Fees Surge to All-Time Highs After Uniswap Launch
Tron Sees Uptick in Usage Amid DeFi Pivot
The ongoing uptick in the price of TRX coincides with an extremely positive quarter for Tron in terms of its on-chain fundamentals.
DappRadar, a crypto data site tracking decentralized protocols, reported that activity on Tron increased by 265% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Much of this growth was triggered by Tron’s DeFi applications, which saw a 900% uptick in usage.
Q3 2020: @Tronfoundation @justinsuntron
– Activity on #TRON increased by 265% in Q3 2020 compared to Q2 2020.
– #DeFi category spiked by 899% (@DeFi_JUST @defi_sunio)
– Exchanges grew by 641%. (#JustSwap, @TronTrade)
3 months data in 3 minutes: https://t.co/xN4TCKoJ3K pic.twitter.com/xHHd9FtM4Z
— DappRadar (@DappRadar) September 30, 2020
Tron’s somewhat successful pivot comes as Ethereum has been seeing extreme transaction fees as a result of an uptick in transaction demand stemming from DeFi. Some postulate that Tron’s applications are seeing adoption because retail users with less capital are looking for ways to easily and cheaply deploy their capital within DeFi.
Related Reading: Critical On-Chain Signal Predicts That Bitcoin’s Next Move Will Be Upward
All Eyes on Bitcoin
While TRX may have fundamental and technical merits to drive it higher, its price trajectory is somewhat dependent on Bitcoin at the end of the day.
Fortunately for Tron holders, analysts are optimistic about Bitcoin as it manages to stay resolute in the face of bearish news events. Commenting on the potential positive ramifications of BitMEX getting charged by the U.S. CFTC, on-chain analyst Willy Woo wrote:
“Fundamentally the market is scared for all the wrong reasons. MEX did NOT get hacked. No traders will lose coins. Futures exchanges will clean up their practices. We’ll see less volatility, less scam-wicking, more spot volumes, more organic moves, more institutional money.”
Woo elaborated that pure on-chain trends show that the Bitcoin ball remains in the court of bulls, not bears.
Related Reading: MicroStrategy’s Stock Continues to Soar After Bitcoin Purchase
Featured Image from Shutterstock Price tags: trxusd, trxbtc Charts from TradingView.com Tron (TRX) Surges 10% Higher Amid Ongoing Pivot to DeFi