Since the start of the year, PENDLE has soared by 502% to new all-time highs, showcasing its remarkable expansion amid growing protocol activity.
What Is Fueling the Rise of PENDLE?
Pendle Finance, a yield trading protocol based on Ethereum, introduces an innovative method for yield farming by splitting assets into Principal Tokens and Yield Tokens. This model allows for the trading of tokens while securing yields up to 47% on the invested assets.
Although launched in 2021, Pendle has seen a significant increase in its adoption recently. This growth is largely due to the rise in Ethereum liquid restaking activity and airdrops from DeFi protocols like Ether.Fi.
A notable trend is the deposit of Ether.Fi restaking token, eETH, on Pendle Finance by many users, in anticipation of an expected airdrop from EigenLayer, another restaking protocol. This anticipation is driven by the reward of points from EigenLayer to restakers.
The recent surge in Pendle’s activity is primarily due to the increase of the cap for its Ethena’s USDe pool to 400 million. This enhancement in protocol engagement has boosted Pendle’s total value locked (TVL) beyond $4 billion.
This represents an extraordinary growth of over 1,500% since the year’s outset, when Pendle’s TVL was just $233 million. The platform’s total trading volume has escalated to $10.5 billion. It’s important to note that while most trading activities are on Ethereum, the project is also expanding its presence on Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Mantle.
Pendle’s rapid expansion has solidified its status as the premier DeFi yield protocol. This impressive ascent led BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes to proclaim the platform as “the future of DeFi.”
