Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
Pendle (PENDLE): The Coin of a Market for Trading Future Yield
Coin of the protocol that splits principal from yield
PENDLE is the coin of Pendle, a decentralized-finance (DeFi) protocol that lets people trade a yield-bearing asset’s ‘principal’ and its ‘future yield’ separately. It built a market for future income on the blockchain.
1. A market for trading yield
Pendle, a team based in Singapore, opened on Ethereum in 2021. It splits assets that earn interest or staking rewards, such as staked ETH, into parts that can be traded separately, much as a bond’s principal and coupons can be sold apart in traditional finance. It is now deployed on many other chains too.
PENDLE is the protocol’s governance (voting) and incentive coin. Holders can weigh in on how it is run and have received benefits tied to its fee income. On the Crypto Nation map, PENDLE stands in Ethereum City (the capital), because it was first issued on Ethereum.
2. PT, YT and the role of PENDLE
Pendle splits a yield-bearing asset into two tokens. A PT (principal token) can be redeemed for one unit of the original asset at maturity; a YT (yield token) collects the interest or rewards the asset produces until then. A PT trades at a discount before maturity, so holding it until then works like a pre-set yield.
An automated market maker (AMM) trades the two, and liquidity providers earn fees and PENDLE rewards. Until now, locking PENDLE for up to two years produced vePENDLE, used to vote on which pools get rewards and to share in fee income. In January 2026 Pendle announced a switch to sPENDLE: protocol revenue buys back PENDLE for active holders, and reward allocation moves from votes to an algorithm, aiming to cut new PENDLE emissions.
3. Yield markets across DeFi
Pendle offers maturity-based markets for assets such as staked ETH and dollar-linked yield coins. During the ‘points’ rush of 2023–24 (scores that hinted at future rewards), YTs were also used to trade expected rewards. More recently it added Boros, which trades perpetual futures funding rates (payments between long and short traders).
Key points: launch on Ethereum in 2021, V2 in 2022, and the sPENDLE announcement of 20 January 2026, with vePENDLE locking paused on 29 January. Existing vePENDLE holders were to start with a boosted sPENDLE balance based on their remaining lock time.
4. Things to know
Most assets traded on Pendle belong to other protocols, so trouble with them reaches Pendle markets. If an underlying asset loses value or a linked service is hacked, PT and YT prices can swing even if Pendle’s own contracts are fine. In September 2024 Penpie, a third-party service that boosted rewards on top of Pendle, was hacked for a large loss.
Maturities and changing yields make positions hard to understand, and smart contract bugs are a risk. Pendle has already reworked its token design once, so the rules for holder benefits can change again. As with any governance coin, votes can gather with large holders or services that vote on others’ behalf.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.