TRON Token Glossary

New to TRON? This plain-English glossary defines the terms you’ll meet while creating and launching a TRC-20 token, grouped so you can scan quickly.

Core TRON terms

• TRON - a high-throughput, low-fee blockchain popular for stablecoins and retail activity.
• TRX - TRON’s native cryptocurrency, used to pay for resources.
• SUN - the smallest unit of TRX. 1 TRX = 1,000,000 SUN.
• TVM - the TRON Virtual Machine, which runs smart contracts (similar to Ethereum’s EVM).

Token standards

• TRC-20 - the smart-contract standard for fungible tokens on TRON. See what is TRC-20.
• TRC-10 - a simpler native token standard. See TRC-10 vs TRC-20.
• ERC-20 / BEP-20 - equivalent standards on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
• Fungible - every unit is identical and interchangeable.

Fees and resources

• Energy - resource consumed by smart-contract execution; obtained by staking TRX or burning a little TRX.
• Bandwidth - resource consumed by transaction size; everyone gets a free daily allowance.
• Freezing / staking - locking TRX to receive renewable energy or bandwidth. See fees explained.

Token mechanics

• Supply - total number of tokens that exist.
• Decimals - how divisible a token is (6 is standard on TRON).
• Mint - create new tokens. Burn - permanently destroy tokens.
• Pause - temporarily freeze transfers (optional feature).
• Owner / ownership - the address with special contract permissions.
• Renounce - permanently give up ownership, making the contract immutable. See renouncing.
• Allowance / approve - permission letting a contract (like a DEX) move your tokens.

Launch and trading

• Liquidity pool - a deposit of two assets on a DEX that makes a token tradable.
• SunSwap - TRON’s leading decentralised exchange. See listing on SunSwap.
• JustLend - a major TRON lending protocol.
• Liquidity lock - committing liquidity so it can’t be withdrawn, a key trust signal.
• Rug pull - when a project removes liquidity or dumps supply, leaving holders stranded.
• Honeypot - a malicious token buyers can’t sell.

Infrastructure

• TronLink - the most popular TRON wallet.
• Tronscan - TRON’s main block explorer. See verifying on Tronscan.
• TronGrid - public TRON node infrastructure for reading the chain.
• Contract address - the unique T… address identifying your token.
• Base58 - the address format TRON uses; TRON addresses start with T.
• Non-custodial - you hold your own keys and funds; no third party controls them.
• Seed phrase - the secret recovery words for a wallet. Never share them with anyone.
• Multisig - a wallet requiring multiple approvals to transact, used for higher security.

Trading and market terms

• DEX - a decentralised exchange where tokens trade peer-to-pool, like SunSwap.
• AMM - “automated market maker,” the pool-based mechanism a DEX uses to price swaps.
• Slippage - the difference between expected and executed price on a trade; larger on thin liquidity.
• Market cap - circulating supply multiplied by price.
• FDV - “fully diluted valuation,” total supply multiplied by price.
• Circulating vs total supply - tokens in the market versus every token that exists.
• Impermanent loss - the opportunity cost a liquidity provider can face when the paired prices diverge. See listing on SunSwap.
• Bridge / wrapped token - moving value between chains by locking the original and issuing a wrapped version.

Distribution terms

• Airdrop - distributing tokens free to wallets to bootstrap a community.
• Vesting - releasing allocated tokens gradually over time rather than all at once.
• Cliff - an initial period during vesting where no tokens unlock.
• Memecoin - a community-driven token whose value is social rather than utility-based. See creating a memecoin on TRON.
• Stablecoin - a token pegged to a stable value, like USDT-TRON.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between total and circulating supply?

Total supply is every token that exists; circulating supply is the portion actually in the market (excluding locked, vested or burned tokens). Market cap uses circulating supply; FDV uses total.

Is impermanent loss a real loss?

It’s an opportunity cost - the value of your liquidity position can end up below simply holding the two assets if their prices diverge sharply. It only becomes “real” if you withdraw at that point. For a founder seeding their own token, it’s usually an accepted cost of being tradable.

What does “non-custodial” mean for me?

You alone control your keys and funds - no platform can move or freeze them. It also means there’s no “forgot password”: protect your seed phrase, because losing it means losing access.