EXCLUSIVE: Tron's Justin Sun Believes Blockchain-Based Financial Services Can Reduce Global Poverty

Last Wednesday, Justin Sun, founder of Tron TRX/USD, gave a keynote interview to kick off the second episode of Benzinga’s virtual trade show series, “Crypto Unlocked.” The event focused on global real-life use cases for crypto and Tron’s role as the leading network for USD-backed stablecoin Tether USDT/USD.

In the exclusive interview, Sun spoke of blockchain technology as a fundamental human need and said financial services can play a crucial role in reducing global poverty.

“I think people in the United States don't really know that for most of the world it is very hard to get access to U.S. dollars. Ninety percent of people outside the U.S. don't have a U.S. bank account. USDT on Tron provides them with an important opportunity to get access to U.S. dollars. USDT can become an alternative for them to store value and make payments,” Sun said.

Sun also highlighted the potential of blockchains in reducing poverty by providing cheap access to financial services.

“I think a big contributor to poverty is actually a lack of financial services. For people in parts of Africa, one of the biggest pain points is there is no easy way for people to store value. They can't get access to a bank account... Blockchain provides a great solution with basically zero cost. They can use this account to receive money and store value,” he said.

Sun explained that it’s easy to take financial services for granted in the U.S. because access is fairly common. “I believe blockchain will become one of the most important parts of national infrastructure — like gas or water, everybody can use it every day, without a very big cost.”

Sun also highlighted the importance of stablecoins, such as USDT, in providing access to U.S. dollars for people outside the U.S. who do not have access to U.S. bank accounts.

During the interview, Sun said that the Tron network has been growing rapidly, serving 2.5 to 3 million users with 9 to 10 million transactions every day — a 30% increase since 2022. He indicated that these users can open accounts for free and spend about 20 cents per transaction.

“Currently, our transaction volume is about $14 billion per day. Since the inception of the network, we have done several trillion dollars worth of transactions. We believe it's going to continue to grow, since more and more people have this kind of demand, especially outside of the United States," he said. "Definitely, we will continue to work on to drive the usage and to provide the most important infrastructure globally.”

Ultimately, Sun sees crypto playing the biggest role outside of the U.S. because there is more need for access to a stable fiat currency and traditional financial services in other parts of the world.

“I have always believed stablecoins actually have the biggest use case outside of the US. We believe financial services and blockchain services are things everyone will need in the future. that's why we want to bring the world a cheap solution that meets this basic human need,” he said.

Photo: Courtesy of Benzinga