S&P launches its first digital asset index, with TRON (TRON) ranking among the top five core holdings

Recently, S&P Dow Jones Indices, together with globally renowned digital asset investment firm Pantera Capital, launched the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index. The index uses observable, sustainable protocol revenue as its core screening metric, aiming to provide institutional investors with a more systematic and transparent benchmark for digital asset allocation.

TRON’s token (TRX) was successfully included, ranking among the top five weighted constituent assets alongside Ethereum, BNB, Solana, and Hyperliquid, further highlighting its leading advantages across fundamental dimensions such as protocol revenue, network effects, and on-chain economic activity. At the same time, this is also the best footnote to TRON’s achievement in winning top institutional recognition with an issuance volume of over $90B USDT, 4 million daily active users, and robust protocol revenue.

Using “real revenue” as the yardstick, TRON’s fundamental strengths stand out

Unlike prior crypto benchmarks that primarily weight by market cap or focus on token price, this index is the first to use “protocol revenue” as its core screening and evaluation dimension. It marks a new phase in which the valuation logic of the digital asset industry is shifting from “narrative-driven, market cap first” toward “fundamentals first, real value prioritized.”

In terms of methodology, the index selects its sample from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index, including only assets that meet the minimum thresholds for protocol revenue, market cap, and liquidity. Assets are then ranked based on cumulative protocol revenue over the past two quarters and weighted by adjusted market cap: the cap for a single largest holding is 35%, while the cap for other constituent assets is generally 20%, with rebalancing conducted once per quarter.

S&P emphasized that this rule-based framework is designed specifically for institutional allocation. Its goal is to clearly distinguish “validated mature blockchain activity” from “speculative exposure,” serving as either an underlying benchmark for investment products or a reference for actively managed portfolios.

As disclosed in S&P Dow Jones Indices’ official blog, the index’s initial offering includes 18 constituent assets in total, and TRON (TRX) successfully makes it into the five most important holdings. However, under this stringent “protocol revenue first” mechanism, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ripple (XRP) end up as the biggest “excluders” compared with the broader index.

The result is highly compelling: TRON is not driven by hype, but stands out through continuous, real, and quantifiable on-chain revenue and network usage value. As a leading public chain, TRON has long ranked at the top of the industry in key fundamental indicators such as stablecoin settlement, daily active addresses, and transfer counts. Its inclusion as a core holding by institutions like S&P—top-tier traditional financial organizations—is authoritative endorsement of the network’s ability to generate “real money” output.

Deeply focused on stablecoins and forward-looking AI plans, TRON forges a global value flow and intelligent foundation

TRON is able to maintain a top position in an index that “rewards by revenue” primarily because it has clear absolute advantages in the global stablecoin arena and continues to drive technological innovation.

So far, TRON’s on-chain USDT issuance has surpassed $90B, securing the #1 spot globally in stablecoin settlement volume. In 2025, the total USDT transfer volume handled by TRON reached approximately $7.9 trillion, with daily average USDT transfer amounts consistently above $20 billion. TRON also processes about 65% of retail USDT transfers below one thousand (in value), firmly dominating the small cross-border transfer segment.

Backed by a high-performance architecture with block confirmation in just 3 seconds and extremely low transfer costs, TRON not only became a de facto dollar transfer channel for emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, but also extended these high-concurrency, low-cost settlement advantages into the AI field in line with the AI era.

As AI moves toward the AI Agent era, traditional bank accounts are unable to meet the settlement needs of AI that require high-frequency, micro-amount payments with no human authorization. TRON is stepping in as a key infrastructure enabling the integration of “AI and Web3 financial systems” thanks to its strong network effects.

TRON has set up and expanded an AI artificial intelligence fund to $1 billion, focusing on agent identity systems, micropayment settlement, and on-chain compute service. Within the ecosystem, B.AI—built as the financial foundation for the AI Agent era—was the first to realize an innovative scenario in which AI agents seamlessly pay global top large-model calls via cryptographic on-chain wallets.

From supporting cross-border remittances for massive numbers of human users, to providing a decentralized foundation for AI agents’ high-frequency payments and resource calls, TRON has formed a powerful network flywheel effect. This ecosystem closed loop—driven jointly by real payment demand and cutting-edge AI innovation—has not only resulted in a large and stable accumulation of protocol revenue for the network, but also enabled TRON to evolve from a traditional payments channel into a future-facing foundation for the intelligent value internet.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, as spot ETFs, multi-asset crypto index funds, and AI+Web3 integrated ecosystems accelerate their adoption, public chains that excel in real revenue, network utility, and forward-looking innovation will increasingly become the preferred choice for institutional allocation.

This inclusion in the joint index by S&P and Pantera Capital is another authoritative confirmation from mainstream traditional finance of TRON’s fundamental value and long-term prospects. Anchored by steady on-chain revenue, a massive base of real users, and its AI-era innovation roadmap, TRON is steadily moving toward the core stage of the global value internet.