The news is buzzing: SRM Entertainment, soon to be Tron Inc., is getting a $210 million injection, and Justin Sun is throwing in $100 million himself. SRM stock went wild, jumping 547.5%. But who's really celebrating? Certainly not the single mother in Lagos desperate to get $20 back home to her extended family. Or the smallholder farmer in rural Kenya unable to afford seeds.
In order to raise capital, Sun aggressively courted Wall Street and cozied up to the Trump family. Meanwhile, average users in emerging markets, especially Africa – the same people Tron was supposed to empower – are getting crushed. Those transaction fees are no joke.
Are Tron's Fees Morally Bankrupt?
As everyone knows, Tron made its reputation as a hive for stablecoins, chiefly USDT. More than half of all USDT now resides on Tron. Tron flushes in more than $1.6 billion a year, mostly because of Tether. Here's the kicker: sending USDT now costs $3.69 on average. None of them compare to the $0.30 it costs to send TRX. What does this mean? It means the very people relying on USDT for everyday transactions, for remittances, for survival, are paying a hefty price.
Think about it. $3.69 is no small change for the average American. To the person who lives on three dollars a day, that’s a big percent of what they earn. It’s the making ends meet versus the putting food on the table. It’s the kind of regressive fee that exacerbates inequality, not help solve it.
Justin Sun, the notorious creator of Trump’s constituent targeting financial products, as well as a range of memecoins and stablecoins like USD1. To fund the merger, he turns to a well-connected company linked to Trump. In fact, the SEC even unilaterally paused an enforcement action against Sun and the Tron Foundation. What does it say about Sun's priorities? Are we seeing a deliberate shift away from the original vision of financial inclusion towards chasing political power and wealth?
Tron: A Tool or a Trap?
Tron was supposed to be different. It promised to provide a less expensive, more efficient way to do everything that we’d grown accustomed to doing through established financial institutions. Yet with these higher fees—hardly an improvement! Or is this just another tech tool that allows the wealthy to further extract value from the poor?
Here's where the "unexpected connection" comes in: Remember the microfinance scandals of the early 2000s? These were intended to lift people out of poverty, but more often ensnared them in cycles of predatory debt. Are Trons crazy high fees making the same mistake? Are we just trading exploitative banks for exploitative blockchains?
The irony is almost unbearable. Because crypto, at its core, is about decentralization and empowerment. And yet, here we are with a major player like Tron putting profit over people.
Alternatives Exist: A Glimmer of Hope?
The good news is, there are alternatives. Coinbase’s Base and Bitcoin’s Plasma sidechain are creating new spaces for near-zero transaction fees. Plasma even promises zero-fee USDT transactions. Zero fee! Consider the regulatory burden imposed on an African wishing to send or receive a small remittance amount. We learned how it affects their daily life in a very personal way.
Tron takes pride in their built-up liquidity and their global aspirations, particularly their focus outside of the US. But liquidity doesn’t do you much good if the cost of accessing liquidity is prohibitive. And widespread distribution doesn’t matter if those you’re distributing to can’t afford to access the service.
Ultimately, this isn't just about Tron. It's about the entire crypto industry. This is a question of whether we’re serious about financial inclusion, or whether this is just a project to create a new system of extraction.
Tron's P/S ratio in 2024 is 6.4, while Circle's is 31.65 and the KBW Banking Index is 1.71. While the increase in SRM’s price is good for investors, what does it mean for the average user in Africa.
Justin Sun, you have a choice. Or you can choose to go further on this route, with sustainable profit and political goodwill being the top priority. Or you can take to heart the promise of crypto, the promise of empowering the underserved. You can still significantly reduce those fees, and thus make Tron really accessible to everyone, not just the rich few.
The world is watching, especially Africa. Don't fail them. Help us prevent Tron from being remembered as a monument to greed and exploitation. Instead, make it a force for good. Turn it into a vehicle for real financial inclusion. The future of Tron, and one might argue the future of crypto’s reputation in the developing world, hangs in the balance.
