The world's largest crypto yield trading platform, Pendle, has announced an upgrade to its native tokenomics with the introduction of sPENDLE. This update aims to unlock deeper liquidity, diversify revenue streams, and further solidify Pendle's leading position in the on-chain yield and interest rate space. Combined with Pendle and Boros's recent performance data, this upgrade highlights the platform's long-term strategic goals in decentralized finance and its expansion into related markets.
Record Performance and Protocol Dominance in 2025
In 2025, Pendle achieved significant milestones across multiple core network and financial metrics, demonstrating strong usage and sustained market share in the yield trading sector:
· Average Total Value Locked (TVL): Approximately $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, placing it alongside top DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Aave, and Hyperliquid
· Cumulative Protocol Fees: Approximately $44.6 million, a 134% year-over-year increase, with about $34.9 million distributed to token holders
· Monthly Nominal Trading Volume: Approximately $54 billion (90-day rolling average), with daily trading volume frequently reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, indicating strong demand for fixed yield
This data shows that Pendle has become a major platform for tokenized yield and funding rate trading, with realized fee revenue and liquidity depth surpassing many platforms in the fixed yield space.
Highlights of Pendle's New Token Upgrade
The upgraded $PENDLE token brings a simpler and fairer overall solution to the ecosystem:
· Protocol revenue will be used to buy back $PENDLE tokens and distribute them to active sPENDLE holders
· Optimized Liquidity Model: sPENDLE supports a 14-day no-penalty exit period, or a 5% fee for instant redemption
· sPENDLE will be a composable, fungible token that can be integrated with any dApp, eliminating the trade-off between participation and liquidity, regardless of lock-up period
· Voting Mechanism Upgrade: The previous manual voting will be upgraded to an algorithmic emissions model, aiming to improve allocation efficiency while reducing PENDLE emissions by 20–30%
· The vePENDLE lock-up mechanism will be paused on January 29. Users holding vePENDLE before this date will receive a special multiplier (up to 4x) on their virtual sPENDLE balance based on the remaining lock-up period. Rewards will be distributed based on this virtual sPENDLE balance, providing vePENDLE holders with higher returns during the transition period
TN Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Pendle, stated:
"This upgrade is a structural enhancement in Pendle and Boros's expansion. Our goal has always been to bring the efficiency and scale of traditional fixed income markets to DeFi. With this upgrade, Pendle will become a more robust, sustainable, and institutionally-oriented yield infrastructure."
Boros: The New Frontier of On-Chain Interest Rate Trading
Another key catalyst driving the $PENDLE token architecture upgrade is Boros—a pioneering on-chain platform that tokenizes perpetual contract funding rates, converting previously untradeable yield streams into tradable assets. Boros's data shows rapid organic growth and significant potential:
· Key Metrics: 4 months after launch, Boros achieved:
Approximately $6.9 billion in notional open interest
$91 million in OI
$6.8 million in deposits (as of the end of 2025)
· Generated approximately $301,000 in fees in emerging markets, providing initial validation of product-market fit for on-chain interest rate derivatives
· With the current perpetual contract market open interest around $63 billion, Boros is still in its early stages and is projected to achieve a 10x OI penetration rate
· In addition to mainstream pairs like BTC/ETH/BNB/HYPE, Boros has listed NVDAUSDC–Hyperliquid, allowing users to trade the funding rate of the HIP-3 NVIDIA perpetual contract. Future expansions will include more exotic assets and stock index perpetual contracts, such as S&P 500, NASDAQ, AMZN, and TSLA
By tapping into a massive, underutilized yield source in DeFi—funding rate exposure—Boros further strengthens Pendle's growth trajectory, making its revenue structure less reliant solely on TVL and traditional yield fees.
Strategic Vision: From DeFi Yield to Global Fixed Income Infrastructure
This Pendle token upgrade is designed to support its expansion as a DeFi yield layer infrastructure and bridge to centralized and traditional financial markets. Fixed income is one of the largest segments of the global financial system. Pendle has built a comprehensive toolkit—from Principal Tokens (PT) and Yield Tokens (YT) to funding rate derivatives—to help users access this market more easily.
In the future, Pendle will continue to expand its ecosystem integration directions, including leverage strategies, AI applications, PT collateral usage, and cross-chain liquidity mechanisms.
About Pendle
Pendle is the world's largest crypto yield trading platform, dedicated to the tokenization and trading of yield assets. Pendle provides highly sophisticated yield strategies for individual and institutional users, redefining the future of on-chain fixed income.
