Pendle Announces Token Upgrade to Drive Scaling of its DeFi Yield Platform

2026-01-20 02:14

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This update aims to unlock deeper liquidity, achieve revenue diversification, and further strengthen Pendle's leading position in on-chain yield and interest rate markets

Source: Pendle

The world's largest crypto yield trading platform, Pendle, has announced an upgrade to its native tokenomics, introducing the new token, sPENDLE. This update aims to unlock deeper liquidity, achieve income diversification, and further solidify Pendle's leading position in on-chain yield and interest rate markets. Building on recent performance data of Pendle and Boros, this upgrade highlights the platform's long-term strategic goals in decentralized finance and its expansion into relevant markets.

Record Performance and Protocol Dominance in 2025

In 2025, Pendle achieved significant milestones in various core network and financial metrics, demonstrating its strong user engagement and sustained market share in the yield trading space:

· Average Total Value Locked (TVL): around $5.7 billion, a 76% year-over-year increase, with a peak TVL of $13.4 billion, reflecting robust liquidity participation in the yield market, on par with leading DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Aave, and Hyperliquid
· Cumulative Protocol Fees: around $44.6 million, a 134% year-over-year increase, with token holder dividends of approximately $34.9 million
· Monthly Nominal Trading Volume: around $540 billion (90-day rolling average), with daily trading volumes frequently reaching into the billions, showcasing strong demand for fixed income in the market

These data points indicate that Pendle has become a key platform for tokenized yield and funding rate trading, with realized fee revenue and liquidity depth surpassing many platforms in the fixed income space.

Key Highlights of Pendle's New Token Upgrade

The upgraded $PENDLE token has brought a more concise and equitable overall solution to the ecosystem:

· Protocol revenue will be used to buy back $PENDLE tokens and distribute them to active sPENDLE holders
· Liquidity model optimization: sPENDLE supports a 14-day penalty-free exit period or immediate redemption with a 5% fee
· sPENDLE will be a composable, fungible token that can integrate with any dApp, eliminating the trade-off between engagement and liquidity regardless of lock-up duration
· Voting mechanism upgrade: The existing manual voting will be upgraded to an algorithmic emission model, aiming to reduce PENDLE emissions by 20–30% while enhancing distribution efficiency
· The vePENDLE staking mechanism will be paused on January 29th. Users holding vePENDLE before this date will receive a special multiplier for their virtual sPENDLE balance based on the remaining lock-up period (up to 4x). Rewards will be distributed based on this virtual sPENDLE balance, allowing vePENDLE holders to earn higher returns during the transition period

Pendle Co-Founder and CEO TN Lee said:

“This upgrade is a structural leap for Pendle as part of its expansion with Boros. Our goal has always been to bring the efficiency and scale of traditional fixed income markets to DeFi. Through this upgrade, Pendle will become a more robust, sustainable, and institutionally oriented yield infrastructure.”

Boros: The New Frontier of On-Chain Rate Trading

Another key catalyst driving the upgrade of the $PENDLE token architecture is Boros—an innovative on-chain platform that tokenizes perpetual contract funding rates, transforming previously untradable yield streams into tradable assets. Boros' data shows rapid organic growth and immense developmental potential:

· Key Metrics: After 4 months of operation, Boros has achieved:
Approximately $6.9 billion in notional open interest
$91 million OI
$6.8 million in deposits (as of the end of 2025)

· Has generated approximately $301k in fees in emerging markets, validating the product-market fit for on-chain rate derivatives
· The current perpetual contract market OI is approximately $63 billion, with Boros still in its early stages, expected to achieve a 10x OI penetration rate
· In addition to mainstream BTC/ETH/BNB/HYPE trading pairs, Boros has launched NVDAUSDC–Hyperliquid, allowing users to trade the funding rate of HIP-3 NVIDIA perpetual contracts, with future expansions to include more exotic assets and stock index perpetual contracts, such as S&P 500, NASDAQ, AMZN, TSLA, etc.

By tapping into a significant revenue source in DeFi that has not been fully explored—funding rate exposure—Boros further strengthens Pendle's growth trajectory, shifting its revenue structure away from reliance solely on TVL and traditional yield fees.

Strategic Vision: Transitioning from DeFi Yield to Global Fixed Income Infrastructure

This Pendle token upgrade aims to support its extension into the DeFi yield layer infrastructure and align with centralized and traditional financial markets. Fixed income is one of the largest segments in the global financial system, and Pendle has built a full suite of tools—from Principal Tokens (PT) and Yield Tokens (YT) to funding rate derivatives—to help users access this market more conveniently.

In the future, Pendle will continue to expand its ecosystem integration direction, including leverage strategies, AI applications, PT collateral utility, and cross-chain liquidity mechanisms.

About Pendle

Pendle is the world's leading decentralized protocol that enables the tokenization and trading of future yield assets. Pendle offers highly customizable yield strategies for both retail and institutional users, redefining the future of on-chain fixed income.

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