Tron’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and blockchain oracle provider Chainlink have announced that the Tron blockchain would switch its oracle solution provider. 

In a press release, Tron DAO confirmed it would discontinue support of WinkLink, its previous oracle provider. According to the announcement, Tron’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem will move to Chainlink Data Feeds for its pricing data. 

This means that DeFi applications JustLend and JustStable — with over $6.5 billion in total value locked — will use data oracles from Chainlink. 

Accelerating Tron’s DeFi economy

The announcement highlighted that Tron’s participation in the Chainlink Scale program will “accelerate ecosystem growth and adoption.” 

As part of the integration, Tron will initially cover certain operation costs associated with Chainlink oracle networks, such as gas fees, while a long-term plan will eventually shift those costs to decentralized application (DApp) user fees.

Thodoris Karakostas, the head of blockchain partnerships at Chainlink Labs, said in the press release that Chainlink will empower the Tron ecosystem developers to build DeFi apps and “advance the decentralized internet.”

Sam Elfarra, the community spokesperson at Tron DAO, echoed the sentiment and said in the press release that they joined the Chainlink Scale program to accelerate Tron’s DeFi economy.

Tron Founder Justin Sun announcing the integration at Chainlink SmartCon. Source: Chainlink

In an X post, Tron founder Justin Sun said that the integration will create opportunities for Chainlink, Tron-based stablecoins and real-world assets (RWA).

Memecoins drove Tron’s revenue to a new high

Meanwhile, Tron’s memecoin ecosystem remains a strong revenue driver. The blockchain’s memecoin launchpad SumPump has driven Tron’s quarterly revenue to $151.2 million in the third quarter of 2024. According to crypto research firm Messari, this new record high represents a 30% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Between Aug. 12 and Sept. 30, more than  89,000 tokens were launched on SunPump. This pushed Tron’s DeFi transactions to increase by 487% in Q3. “SunPump activity began picking up on August 16 and proceeded to go parabolic over the following two-week period,” Messari wrote. 

Tokens launched on SunPump from Aug. 12 to Sept. 30. Source: Messari

While the number of tokens experienced a surge, the number of new tokens launched on the memecoin launchpad dropped in September to less than 1,000 daily. 

Magazine: Suspicious arrest of crypto scam reporter, Japan’s pro-crypto PM: Asia Express