TRON (TRX) has been experiencing significant growth in recent months, surpassing a market cap of $20 billion in December 2024, setting a new all-time high. The cryptocurrency has shown a 4% weekly gain and a 33% surge in trading volume, indicating growing investor interest and heightened network activity. This has put TRX in a position to potentially overtake Cardano (ADA) in terms of market capitalization, currently valued at approximately $22 billion.
However, as Bitcoin had its worst Q1 in seven years, the altcoin market, including TRX and ADA, has been trading below their highs and losing key support levels. TRX has lost $14 billion in market value since Q4 of last year, while ADA lost over $20 billion during the same period. Despite ADA holding strong at $0.60, its support level is at risk of being lost if the market continues to dip further.
The derivatives market also shows differences between Cardano and Tron, with Cardano leading in high-risk futures trading with an Open Interest (OI) of $766 million, compared to TRX’s OI of $195 million. This makes Cardano more susceptible to steep liquidations in bearish markets, while TRX is likely to remain more stable. In bullish markets, however, Cardano’s strong presence in derivatives could drive its price higher than TRX.
On-chain metrics over the past year further highlight the differences between Cardano and Tron. Cardano has seen a significant -42.6% year-on-year drop in daily active addresses, now at just 23,477, while TRX has experienced a 53.1% surge in active addresses, reaching 2.6 million. TRX also dominates in fee generation and DEX volume, indicating strong network activity and adoption compared to Cardano.
Overall, TRON’s strong performance in terms of network activity and adoption suggest that it has a solid chance of surpassing Cardano’s $23 billion market cap. If TRX can maintain its current momentum and potentially break out of its consolidation phase, overtaking Cardano could become a real possibility in the near future. Investors will be watching closely to see how these two cryptocurrencies continue to compete in the market.
