TRON
Key features
Tron is a blockchain network launched in 2017. It's known for fast, cheap transactions, which made it one of the most popular networks for transferring stablecoins — especially USDT.
Key features:
- High speed — transactions confirm within seconds
- Low fees — noticeably cheaper than Ethereum
- Smart contracts — Tron supports building decentralized apps (dApps)
- Massive USDT volume — historically the most-used network in the world for transferring this stablecoin
Keeper supports all tokens on the TRON network. Now that Keeper is a multichain wallet, it's no longer limited to USDT alone, like before.
Network fee
Fees on the Tron network are charged in TRX, the network's native coin.
The fee isn't fixed, it depends on the transaction's size, whether the recipient address is already activated, which token you're sending (TRX, TRC10, TRC20, etc.), and a few other factors. The final fee amount is always shown before you confirm the transaction.
Under the hood, the network doesn't charge fees in a token directly — it charges two internal resources: Bandwidth and Energy.
- Bandwidth covers the "weight" of the transaction — the cost equals the transaction's size in bytes: 1 byte = 1 Bandwidth. Activated wallets get a daily free quota of 600 units. A regular TRX transfer uses about 260–300 Bandwidth, so the free quota covers roughly 1–2 transfers a day. That's why, when sending TRX through Keeper, you may sometimes see a fee of 0 TRX.
- Energy covers running a smart contract. It's only needed for contract-based operations: TRC20 transfers (USDT, USDC), interacting with dApps, and swaps. Unlike Bandwidth, there's no free quota for Energy, so sending TRC20 tokens (like USDT) burns TRX. How much Energy is used depends on exactly what the contract does with your wallet — for example, with USDT: the first time an address receives USDT, the contract needs to create a new storage slot for it, and creating that slot costs roughly twice as much, which is why your first deposit is always more expensive than later ones.
📌 Important: in Keeper, the fee for a USDT (TRC20) transfer doesn't have to be paid in TRX. You can also cover it with GRAM or Battery charges:
- With GRAM — you may need 0.5 to 2 GRAM.
- With Battery — you may need 350 to 700 charges.
- With TRX — usually 7 to 15 TRX.
📌 For all other TRON-tokens, the fee can only be paid in TRX.