Crypto is pushing deeper into Wall Street, and Tron now has an ETF of its own from Canary Capital. Johny Fernandez talks with Tron founder Justin Sun about what the fund means for investors. Sun says it is the first US-based ETF of TRX and gives institutional investors regulated exposure through shares on a traditional exchange, without needing to understand custody or how Tron works.
Sun says Tron is one of the most important stablecoin networks in the world, holding around $95 billion in stablecoins and processing around $30 billion in transaction volume every day. He says more banks and institutions will use it as a global settlement layer, and that Tron is popular in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. Sun says blockchain is a natural settlement network for AI, that Tron’s roadmap for the next five years centers on agentic payments, and that he hopes to see a large amount of agent-to-agent, agent-to-human, and agent-to-merchant payments next year.
Sun also says a quantum attack is very possible in the next one to two years, depending on how fast AI develops, and that Tron aims to release a quantum-resistant version in around six months, making it the first quantum-resistant network in crypto. He closes by describing the Justin Sun Prize, which he calls a Nobel Prize for the AI era, as a prize focused on math problem solving that pays out automatically for Lean proofs, with no human committee deciding winners.
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Johny Fernandez: Crypto is pushing deeper into Wall Street, and one of its best-known blockchains now has an ETF of its own. That fund from Canary Capital tracks Tron’s digital token, and the network is also making a play for stablecoins, AI payments and protection against quantum computing. So joining us now to discuss this is Tron founder Justin Sun. Justin, thank you for being with us.
Justin Sun: Thank you so much.
Johny Fernandez: So Canary Capital now has a Tron ETF. What does that mean now for investors?
Justin Sun: Yes. First of all, the Canary Tron ETF, [unclear: “tr s”], is the first US-based ETF of TRX in the United States. So it gives the institutional investor exposure in a regulated way. The investor can basically buy ETF shares on a traditional exchange without understanding how to custody their cryptocurrency or understand how Tron works. They can just buy [unclear: “t s”] shares to get exposure to the Tron network and cryptocurrency.
So I think this is a very important way for all the traditional investors, if they want to get direct exposure to the TRX token and the Tron network. Basically, I think this is one of the very important steps for the Tron network and TRX to attract traditional institutional investors.
Johny Fernandez: And so where are you seeing big institutions actually use Tron?
Justin Sun: Yes. First of all, Tron is one of the most important stablecoin networks in the world. Today, Tron is holding around $95 billion worth of stablecoin and processing around 30 billion USD worth of transaction volume every day. So this is one of the most important stablecoin networks in the world, and it continues to expand its territory.
So that’s why I think in the future, more banks and institutions will use the Tron network as a very important settlement layer to settle their transactions globally. And with, of course, AI becoming more and more important today, a blockchain is a very natural settlement network for AI. AI agents and all the AI infrastructure can easily settle their transactions on the blockchain network. So that’s why I believe Tron will also play a very important role in agentic payments in the future.
Johny Fernandez: And then I think the other question is, what role does Tron play in the global stablecoin economy?
Justin Sun: Yes. First of all, I believe the stablecoin business and the stablecoin payment network is a global business. It’s not only based in the United States or a single region around the world. A stablecoin is a big network that can connect the world globally. For example, our Tron network today is very popular in Africa, Asia, Europe and also America as well.
So it’s a very decentralized and distributed network, which I think gives blockchain and AI together a big advantage, because when it comes to global settlement, the Tron network gives everybody access to a network where you can use stablecoin payments, DeFi and agentic payments all together, in an instant and cheap way.
Johny Fernandez: And we know that Tron is building protection against future quantum computers. So how real is that threat to crypto at the moment?
Justin Sun: Yes, I think most people underestimated how big AI can develop today. And actually, a quantum mechanism and quantum attack is very possible, I think, in the next 1 or 2 years, depending on how fast AI develops all the mechanisms eventually. So that’s why I think Tron is the first blockchain in the world to introduce a quantum-resistant mechanism and algorithm on [unclear: “the blockchain task network”].
And we will get the quantum-resistant algorithm ready in around, I think, six months. So we will be ready to release the new version to the network to make Tron the first quantum-resistant network in the crypto industry. And I think it is very important to make a strong network quantum-resistant, because nobody knows how fast AI can develop the algorithm. So we want to get ready in the next 6 to 12 months.
Johny Fernandez: And so let’s talk a little bit about AI agents, because they are starting to make payments on their own. So why build that on Tron? Can you break that down for us?
Justin Sun: Yes, of course. So first of all, we started with the stablecoin business, and now Tron is the world’s largest stablecoin network. And the next step, we are building on tokenized stock. And also, of course, for the next five years, our roadmap is always focused on agentic payments.
Today, we have seen this year [unclear: “amuse and the growth boats”] get extremely popular, and people start to believe that actually AI, besides the chatbot function, with all the agentic and new developments, we can give more work to AI agents. But actually, today there is still a big problem, because AI cannot get access to the payment system and AI cannot make payments. But with blockchain and the Tron network, there is a very important mechanism, because an AI agent can really be in charge of the money, and it can make payments, buy tokens for itself, and spend them on different tasks.
So I think this is a very important milestone. Next year, if we can see a large amount of AI agents make agent-to-agent, agent-to-human, agent-to-merchant payments, it can actually grow the whole AI ecosystem way bigger than what we have seen so far.
Johny Fernandez: And, Justin, to wrap up, you’re calling the Justin Sun Prize a Nobel Prize for the AI era. So what are you hoping to reward?
Justin Sun: Yes. So we introduced the Justin Sun Prize earlier this year. One of the most important focuses is on math, because we have seen AI making huge progress on math problem solving. And we want to reward all the programmers and developers, and also, of course, anyone who is interested in math and problem solving.
So basically, they can just use [unclear: “on price is a roadmap”] on all the math problems. And if you post your Lean proof and also all the algorithms and ways to solve the questions on the Justin Sun Prize list, you can get rewarded just by automatic payments. So it skips all the judgment and all the process like the Nobel Prize. They have a human committee to decide who to reward and who can win the prize. But the Justin Sun Prize is fully based on AI and on an automatic system to reward people globally.
Johny Fernandez: So, Justin, thank you so much for joining us today here on FINTECH.TV.
Justin Sun: Thank you. Thank you so much.