Pendle (PENDLE) In-Depth Analysis: DeFi Fixed Income Leader—How to Trade Future Yields?

Pendle protocol’s total value locked (TVL) reached a historic high of over $12.1 billion in September 2025. This figure nearly doubled in just two months, underscoring the market’s recognition of its core value.

As of December 4, 2025, its governance token PENDLE was priced at $2.66 on Gate, with a market cap of around $744 million, ranking 65th in the overall market.

01 Core Mechanism: The Financial Lego of Deconstructed Future Yield

Pendle’s core innovation lies in its unique disaggregation of yield-bearing assets. Simply put, it splits a yield-generating asset (such as staked ETH or yield-bearing stablecoins) into two separate tokens: Principal Token (PT) and Yield Token (YT).

PT represents the asset’s future principal. Holders can redeem the original asset 1:1 at maturity, while before maturity, PT typically trades at a discount to face value on the market. This discount effectively locks in a fixed annualized yield.

For example, purchasing a PT worth $1 at maturity for $0.95 means locking in a fixed return.

YT represents all future yield generated by the asset before maturity. YT buyers essentially prepay to acquire the rights to the asset’s future floating returns, aiming for above-average gains. This clever split creates a win-win: risk-averse users secure certainty, while risk-takers gain access to high-volatility yield exposure.

This mechanism has undergone multiple stress tests in the market. In the past year, Pendle has handled 27 large-scale asset maturity events, with 7 single events exceeding $1 billion each—all passing smoothly, demonstrating the protocol’s strong capacity.

02 Market Performance and Price Overview

Pendle’s price history is filled with volatility and opportunity. Its all-time high (ATH) was $7.50, while its all-time low (ATL) was just $0.03377. Such massive volatility presents both risks and potential.

According to Gate data as of December 4, PENDLE’s 24-hour trading volume was $143 million. The price saw a retracement that day, falling 0.46% over 24 hours, but maintained a 2% gain over the past 7 days.

In terms of market cap, PENDLE currently ranks 65th among global cryptocurrencies, with a market cap of about $744 million and a circulating supply of 164 million tokens.

The market’s enthusiasm is also evident in derivatives. During a rally in August 2025, its open interest (OI) reached $163 million, indicating significant capital tracking its price movements.

03 Strategic Engine for Future Growth

Pendle is not resting on its laurels—its 2025 roadmap reveals even greater ambitions, centered on an expansion strategy called “Citadel.”

First, it plans to capture new growth through cross-chain deployment. Pendle aims to enter non-EVM chains such as Solana, TON, and Hyperliquid. These ecosystems are growing rapidly but lack mature fixed income infrastructure, providing Pendle with a vast blue ocean market.

Second, it is driving institutional adoption. Pendle is developing KYC-compliant solutions, aiming to collaborate with licensed investment managers to package on-chain fixed income products into compliance structures familiar to traditional institutions, thereby tapping into a portion of the over $100 trillion global traditional fixed income market.

Finally, it targets the funding rate market. The “Boros” initiative aims to introduce fixed-rate trading into the perpetual contract funding rate sector. This is a huge market with a daily trading volume of $200 billion, currently lacking effective hedging tools. If successful, Pendle will upgrade from a DeFi yield protocol to a full on-chain interest rate trading platform.

04 Price Forecast and Market Outlook

Based on its fundamentals and development prospects, the market holds a long-term optimistic outlook for Pendle’s future price. Gate’s price prediction models outline potential paths for the coming years.

Table: Pendle (PENDLE) Long-term Price Forecast Overview

Forecasts indicate that by 2030, PENDLE’s average price could reach $4.43, representing an 82% increase from the current price, with a potential peak of $6.29. The rationale behind this is Pendle’s leading position in the critical DeFi fixed income sector and its ongoing ecosystem expansion.

05 Ecosystem-Driven Value Capture

Pendle’s success is not an isolated case; it has become the engine of a thriving ecosystem—the “Pencosystem.” For partner projects, launching liquidity pools on Pendle has become a key growth strategy.

For example, the liquid staking protocol Ether.fi’s eETH saw its protocol TVL grow 15x within half a year after launching on Pendle. For yield-bearing stablecoins, Pendle is considered a core launchpad. As Ethena’s USDe grew to a $10 billion market cap, up to 50% of its assets were traded and yield-locked via Pendle at its peak.

This strong empowerment has solidified Pendle’s moat. Its governance token, PENDLE, is deeply tied to this. Token holders can stake to share a portion of protocol fees and participate in governance decisions, directly capturing the value of protocol growth.

Future Outlook

As Ethena’s USDe PT tokens minted on Pendle were instantly snapped up by institutions, a $100 million liquidity pool was filled in less than an hour.

This signals that as capital from the traditional world flows in through compliant channels, this protocol—which has already processed over $10 billion in matured assets—is only just beginning to take the stage.