Pendle Announces Token Upgrade as Its DeFi Yield Platform Scales
Singapore, Singapore, January 20th, 2026, Chainwire
Pendle, The world’s largest crypto yield trading platform, has announced an upgrade to its native token, introducing sPENDLE. The update is intended to unlock deeper liquidity, diversify revenue streams, and strengthen Pendle’s position within the onchain yield and rates segment. Supported by recent performance metrics from Pendle and Boros, the upgrade underscores the platform’s long term goals in decentralized finance (DeFi) and broadens related markets.
Record 2025 Performance and Protocol Dominance
In 2025, Pendle achieved major milestones across key network and financial metrics, illustrating both robust usage and sustained market capture in yield trading:
- Average Total Value Locked (TVL): ~$5.7B up 76% YoY, with a peak TVL of ~$13.4B. This reflects strong liquidity engagement across yield markets, placing Pendle immediately within the likes of other major DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Aave and Hyperliquid.
- Total fees accrued: ~$44.6M up +134% YoY, with holders’ revenue reaching ~$34.9M.
- Monthly notional trading volume: ~$54B (90-day trailing average) with frequent daily nine-figure volume, a testament to Pendle’s fixed yield demand.
The data reflects Pendle’s position as a notable venue for tokenized yield and funding rates trading, with reported realized fees and liquidity depth exceeding those of several comparable platforms within the fixed income space.
Pendle’s New Token Enhancements
The upgraded Pendle token introduces a comprehensive solution to for simplicity and fair distribution across its ecosystem:
- Protocol revenue will be used for PENDLE token buybacks, and distributed to active sPENDLE holders
- Improved liquidity model by enabling sPENDLE a simple 14-day withdrawal period (or instant redemption for a 5% fee).
- sPENDLE also transforms as composable, and fungible token that can be integrated with any dApp, eliminating the trade-off between participation and liquidity regardless of time horizon
- The previous manual voting system will be upgraded to an algorithmic emission model, targeting to cut PENDLE emissions by 20-30% while delivering significantly better allocation efficiency
- vePENDLE locks will be paused on January 29th, and any existing vePENDLE holders by then will receive a special multiplier to their virtual sPENDLE balance based on their remaining lock duration (up to 4x). Rewards will be distributed based on this virtual sPENDLE balance, allowing PENDLE holders to gain outsized rewards during this transition period with vePENDLE
“This upgrade is a structural improvement as we scale both Pendle and Boros” said TN Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Pendle. “Our goal has always been to bring the efficiency and scale of traditional fixed income markets into DeFi. With this upgrade, Pendle becomes a more robust, sustainable, and institution ready yield infrastructure.”
Boros: New Frontier in Onchain Rates Trading
Additional catalyst for Pendle’s upgraded token architecture is Boros, a first-of-its-kind onchain venue that tokenizes perpetual funding rates, transforming an untradable yield stream into a tradable instrument. Boros metrics highlight rapid organic adoption and material growth potential:
- Key Metrics: 4-months after its launch Boros achieved ~$6.9B in open interest ~$91M and $6.8M in deposits by year-end 2025.
- Boros has generated ~$301K in fees while operating in a nascent market establishing early product-market fit for rate derivatives on-chain.
- Perpetual markets with ~$63B in open interest represent a significant growth potential where Boros currently holds early share, expecting to unlock up to 10x OI penetration with corresponding ~15% incremental protocol fee growth.
- Boros has also listed NVDAUSDC-Hyperliquid, allowing users to speculate and trade the funding rate of HIP-3 NVIDIA perp market, heralding the listing of more exotic assets as well as other equity perps like S&P500, NASDAQ, AMZN, TSLA and more.
By addressing one of the largest untapped yield sources in DeFi which is funding rates exposure, Boros further strengthens Pendle’s growth vector, helping diversify revenue beyond TVL and traditional yield fees.
Strategic Vision: From DeFi Yield to Global Fixed Income Infrastructure
Pendle’s token upgrade is intended to support the protocol’s infrastructure for scaling the yield layer of decentralized finance (DeFi) in relation to both centralized and traditional financial markets. Fixed income remains one of the largest segments in global finance, and Pendle has developed a range of tools—from principal and yield tokens to funding rate derivatives—aimed at facilitating access to this area. The protocol continues to broaden its integrations, including leverage strategies, AI applications, collateralized PT usage, and cross-chain liquidity mechanisms.
About Pendle
Pendle is the world’s largest crypto yield trading platform empowering the tokenization and trading of yield-bearing assets. Pendle unlocks sophisticated yield strategies for retail and institutional participants alike redefining the future of onchain fixed income.