This is the weekly cost edition: what a USDT withdrawal actually cost in the week of October 5 – 11, 2026, what changed (nothing, on the fee side), and the arithmetic behind the numbers. All fees verified against official exchange pages dated 2026-10-12; energy prices from the Tronsell operations survey on the same date.
The short version: an eighth flat fee week, TRX closing at $0.3299, a weekly cycle saving of $3.09, and one genuinely new number — JustLend DAO's weekly snapshot shows its energy rental price at about 41 SUN per unit against 26 SUN at the best OTC venue, the widest gap between the two markets we survey.
📋The Reference Table: USDT TRC20 Fees at 11 Venues
| Exchange | TRC20 Fee | Minimum | vs $1 floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKX | 1.0 USDT | 2 USDT | — |
| Binance | 1.0 USDT | 10 USDT | — |
| Bybit | 1.0 USDT | 10 USDT | — |
| KuCoin | 1.0 USDT | 10 USDT | — |
| Bitget | 1.0 USDT | 5 USDT | — |
| MEXC | 1.0 USDT | 2 USDT | — |
| Gate.io | 1.5 USDT | 10 USDT | +50% |
| Crypto.com | 1.5 USDT | 10 USDT | +50% |
| HTX | 2.3 USDT | 1 USDT | +130% |
| Coinbase | 2.4 USDT | 1 USDT | +140% |
| Kraken | 2.5 USDT | 5 USDT | +150% |
⚡Energy: 26 SUN to Rent, 100 SUN to Burn — and 41 SUN Through a Lending Protocol
The energy market held its long low band for an eighth week: best surveyed OTC rental price 26 SUN (band 26–30 SUN across the venues we survey) against the chain's 100 SUN burn price set by Proposal #104. A standard USDT transfer consumes about 65,000 energy — roughly 64,300 measured on live transfers, with the dynamic energy model's 2.0x multiplier on USDT contract calls — and a transfer to a never-before-used address needs about double.
Converted at the week's closing TRX price of $0.3299: burning 6.5 TRX costs about $2.14; renting 1.69 TRX costs about $0.56; a new-address transfer runs about $1.12 rented and about $4.29 burned. The 74% saving versus burning has now held for eight straight weeks.
The new detail is the second quote. JustLend DAO's weekly snapshot for September 29 – October 5 reported its energy rental price at 4.089 TRX per 100,000 energy — roughly 41 SUN per unit — and said it moved higher on the week, after the protocol cut its base rate from 15% to 8% in early October. That is the on-chain lending market charging about 58% more than the best OTC venue for the same resource. Both numbers are real, they describe different products, and the gap has widened rather than closed over three weeks. If you want the mechanics of who charges what and why, I wrote the step-by-step comparison of renting, staking and burning for a USDT withdrawal.
🎯The Cheapest Complete Path, Priced
| Step | Choice | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | Any of the six $1-floor venues | 1.0 USDT |
| Network | TRON (TRC20) | 65,000 energy |
| Energy | Rented at 26 SUN (not burned) | 1.69 TRX ≈ $0.56 |
| Bandwidth | Free daily allowance or ~0.35 TRX staked | ~$0.00–0.12 |
| Total | All-in per $1,000 withdrawn | ~$1.56–1.68 |
🧪The Week's Cost Lesson: Know Which Energy Market You Are Buying In
For most of the year the two energy quotes — OTC rental and on-chain lending — tracked each other closely enough that the distinction did not matter for a one-off transfer. It matters now. The lending market repriced to about 41 SUN while the OTC band held at 26–30 SUN, and the same 65,000-energy transfer that costs $0.56 over the counter costs roughly $0.88 through a lending protocol at the week's TRX price. Across a year of weekly transfers, that is about $17 for an identical transaction.
The trade-off is not purely price. Lending-protocol energy has properties OTC rental does not: it is sourced from deposited TRX rather than an operator's pool, and it is available without an account relationship. If that route is the one you have, the honest arithmetic is that you are paying about 58% more for it this month, not that renting has become expensive.
The rule that follows is unglamorous but durable: check both quotes before you rent, and price them in the same unit. A 4.089 TRX quote per 100,000 energy is about 41 SUN per unit; a 26 SUN quote is about 2.6 TRX for the same 100,000. Putting both in SUN is the only way to see that the spread is real.
Takeaway: the 74% saving versus burning TRX is calculated on the best OTC price. If your actual route is the lending market, the saving against burning is closer to 59% — still substantial, and worth stating accurately rather than quoting the headline number.
Eighth flat week on venue fees, a clean availability week, about $1.56 all-in per $1,000 from a floor venue over TRC20 with rented energy, and about $161 a year saved versus the most expensive tracked path at one cycle per week. The route is unchanged; the number to watch is 58% — the gap between the OTC energy price and the on-chain lending price for the same resource.