Analysis: Pendle's new staking mechanism suffers from an incentive imbalance and may be unable to effectively reduce the circulating supply.

Blockworks researcher Kunal Doshi published an article on X stating that Pendle's new staking mechanism, sPENDLE, may not achieve the "token stabilization" (reducing circulating supply) effect many expected. Pendle provides existing vePENDLE stakers with significant multipliers, allowing them to obtain annualized returns far higher than new stakers. Currently, the average lock-up period for vePENDLE is approximately 1.54 years, yielding about a 3.31x return bonus upon conversion to sPENDLE, which gradually diminishes as the unlocking process progresses. This creates a clearly unbalanced incentive structure: new stakers receive only about 5%–7% returns, while vePENDLE stakers enjoying multipliers receive 16%–24%. The low returns for new stakers make it difficult to attract a sufficient volume of new tokens to be staked. If sPENDLE is to truly fulfill its role in reducing supply, it must rapidly amplify protocol revenue through Boros and Pendle V2, thereby increasing overall staking rewards. Otherwise, genuine staking demand may not emerge until later, after the vePENDLE staking multiplier has diminished. Yesterday, Pendle announced the launch of its liquid staking token, sPENDLE, to replace vePENDLE's multi-year lock-up model.