Everyone is talking about TRON (TRX). At the start of December, this coin went for less than half a cent. By January 5, TRX was trading for $0.26 apiece and boasted a market capitalization in excess of $17 billion.
TRX Daily Chart
The wider crypto space has corrected subsequent to these highs and TRX was far from insulated from the decline, now trading for just shy of seven cents a coin. Even subsequent to a more than 70% decline, however, TRX remains up substantially on its late 2017 pricing and we think that there could be some real value in picking up an exposure to Tron while coins are cheap, in anticipation of a wider market recovery and TRX picking back up on its overarching upside momentum.
Here is why we think this.
First up, a quick introduction to the coin.
TRX is the token that underpins the Tron ecosystem, which the company is positioning as a technology that will allow decentralization of the internet. That’s a big claim, of course, but it’s not one that should be brushed off as hype.
Here’s the blurb:
“Tron strives to construct a global free content entertainment system, utilizing blockchain technology. This protocol allows each user to freely publish, store, and own data.”
Basically, the company has taken the infrastructure that underpins the current content creation environment as afforded by a centralized internet system and applied blockchain technology to it in order to allow content creators to benefit from what they create and distribute, as opposed to the spoils going to those entities that currently benefit from this centrally distributed information.
Tron’s platform is similar in concept to something like Ethereum, allowing developers to build smart contract applications on top of it and issue digital assets rooted in these applications, while TRX, again in a similar fashion to the relationship between ETH and Ethereum, serves as a sort of gas-type asset used to underscore the applications’ functionality.
So that’s the technology, why is this one getting so much attention right now?
As far as we see it, there are three primary drivers behind the recent activity.
First, this company and its associated coin have one of the most outspoken and, in turn, well known, people in crypto at the helm – Justin Sun. He’s been profiled in the Asia 30 Under 30, he studied under Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA)’s Jack Ma and, not only that, but Forbes has suggested that he’s the next incarnation of Alibaba billionaire. He’s got more than 350,000 followers on Twitter, and many of these followers hang on his every word.
Which brings us to driver two, community.
Tron has one of the most devoted and supportive communities in the crypto space and – unlike some of those coins that claim large followings – the Tron community is highly diversified. More than 426,000 people hold TRX, spread across 60 countries.
The third driver is rooted in operational development. Some of the most well-known coins, even some of those in the top twenty by market cap, don’t provide half of the operational updates that Tron does. The company has a team of more than 80, with 80% of these developers, and expects to up this to 100 this year. It’s partnered with publicly listed companies (the recent Game.com collaboration is a great example of this) and is reportedly set to announce a spate of fresh partnerships early this year.
Of course, if this coin is really going to gain some near-term traction and run to the above-mentioned highs and beyond, it’s going to need a catalyst.
So does anything stand out as potentially serving as this catalyst?
Well, yes.
Right now, TRX sees the vast majority of its volume from Binance. There’s a vote ongoing right now that could see it listed on KuCoin before the end of the month. If the coin gets this listing, it’s going to increase liquidity and should quickly translate to a boost in price.
Bottom line: this is one of the most transparent and development-focused companies behind any coin on the market and it’s got a large and active community of supporters. It’s run considerably through volume that’s primarily limited to Binance but, when it picks up listings on some of the other major exchanges (which it will, it’s just a matter of time) we are going to see a flood of speculative volume and, with it, a run in price.