Ethereum (ETH) and TRON (TRX): a comparison
Ethereum and TRON set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of ETH and TRX
| Ethereum (ETH) | TRON (TRX) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,118.59 | $0.318824 |
| Ticker | ETH | TRX |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2015 | 2017 |
| Built by | Vitalik Buterin | Justin Sun |
| Consensus | Proof of Stake | Delegated Proof of Stake |
| Block | ~12 sec | ~3 sec |
| Supply cap | no cap | no cap |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 122.21 M ETH | 95.03 B TRX |
| Market cap | $258.91 B | $30.3 B |
| Rank by cap | #2 | #8 |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: ETH and TRX
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | ETH | TRX |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −5.29% | −0.5% |
| 30 days | −14.9% | −3.99% |
| 90 days | +13.34% | −5.21% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.27 (they travel apart).
The tasks ETH and TRX were made for
- Contracts and applicationsEthereum and TRON
How Ethereum and TRON are built
How Ethereum works
In the autumn of 2022 the network moved from mining to Proof of Stake: blocks are proposed and confirmed by validators who have locked up ETH, and a new slot opens every 12 seconds. Contract code is executed by the EVM virtual machine. Part of the fee on every transaction is destroyed, so the final supply of the coin depends on how actively the network is used.
What Ethereum is for
ETH is needed to pay for gas, is posted as collateral in DeFi, takes part in staking and serves as the unit of account of the ecosystem. Layer-2 networks — Arbitrum, Optimism and others — also charge their fees in ETH, so the coin serves a sizeable part of the crypto market.
How TRON works
The consensus is Delegated Proof of Stake: a block comes out every 3 seconds and is assembled by 27 Super Representatives elected by TRX holders. You can avoid paying the fee directly: by staking TRX you get bandwidth and energy resources. If the resources are not enough, the network burns part of your TRX as payment.
What TRON is for
TRX pays for transactions and smart-contract work on TRON — above all for sending USDT TRC20; besides that, the coin is staked and used for voting.