DeFi Revival: Pendle Ecosystem Progress

Author: defizard, crypto researcher; Translation: Jinse Finance xiaozou

From "nobody" to "Binance support", and then to the achievement of trillion-dollar opportunities, let's see how PENDLE makes DeFi shine again.

There are many Easter eggs in Pendle in December that you may have missed.

(1) PendleSwap: an aggregator among aggregators.

(2) Boros will be launched in 2025: long/short funding rate (hedging is easy).

(3) Airdrops to vePENDLE holders.

“What? Airdrops?”

Yes, my dear friend, it is. Pendle charges a 3% fee on all accumulated YT earnings and all SY earnings (including points) of expired unredeemed PT. All of this goes to vePENDLE holders.

"How many tokens will be distributed?"

About $8 million at current prices. The snapshot will be generated on December 31.

"But... not that much. Why would anyone hold vePENDLE?"

Pendle's average daily trading volume is about $150 million. 408 ETH was distributed last month. Its new product Boros will be launched next year, providing margin interest rate swap transactions.

Value captured from Boros will flow to PENDLE and vePENDLE holders. No new tokens.

Imagine trading perpetual funding rates in a Boros market with $150-200 billion in daily volume.

“Wait a minute…Boros supports trading funding rate leverage??”

Yes. Traders, protocols, or market makers will have the ability to hedge funding rates at scale. Fees will be distributed as follows:

- 80% to vePENDLE holders.

- 10% to the Treasury.

- 10% for operations.

"I smell money... so what about PENDLE? What about inflation?"

PENDLE is the core of the Pendle ecosystem and has no maximum supply cap.

Its hybrid inflation model sees weekly emissions decrease by 1.1% per week until April 2026. Thereafter, a terminal inflation rate of 2% per year will be implemented.

"So... what's its valuation like?"

At the time of writing, PENDLE's FDV (fully diluted valuation) is $1.4 billion. Compare the following data:

- UNI: #1 swap token: FDV is $14.5 billion.

- AAVE: #1 lending token: FDV is $6 billion.

- EIGEN: #1 Restaking Token: $6.6B FDV.

- ENA: #1 Basis Trading: $16B FDV.

PENDLE will be #1 in Funding Rate Trading.

Pendle’s journey began in 2021 with a $3.7M funding from Mechanism Capital. The initial TVL was not promising, remaining below $10M for the last two years. But the team refused to give up. They kept developing and creating.

"What is Pendle's current status?"

Its TVL is $4.9 billion (historical peak is $6.7 billion).

In general, Pendle benefits greatly from stablecoins: currently mainly USDe/USD0++.

TVL is followed by LRT/LST, such as EETH/WETH.

The bull market is in full swing, and Pendle's upside potential is huge.

Pendle has everything you want: innovation, unique product-market fit, adaptability, real-world practicality, and excellent team and community support.

If you have identified the best bet, don't let it go easily. And PENDLE is undoubtedly one of them.