The number of Pendle (PENDLE) tokens repurchased in the third quarter exceeded token emissions, while the yield-trading protocol cut incentive spending by more than half and reported revenue of about $2 million.
An earlier EconoTimes review of Pendle V2 found that total value locked (TVL), the dollar value of assets held in the protocol, rose 43% during the quarter. It reached $1.16 billion on Sept. 30, up from $809 million at June 30, marking the first quarterly increase in a year. Revenue was about half its second-quarter level. TVL is a point-in-time measure, and changes in asset prices can affect it without showing whether token balances or net deposits increased.
At quarter-end, dollar markets tied to real-world assets (RWAs) accounted for 82% of Pendle’s TVL. The protocol divides exposure to yield-bearing assets into principal tokens (PTs) and yield tokens (YTs). A PT represents the principal claim and a fixed return at the market’s maturity; a YT tracks changes in the asset’s yield and rewards. The structure lets users trade those two types of exposure separately.
The markets include Treasury-backed stablecoins such as Agora’s AUSD, reinsurance-backed dollars such as reUSD, and tokenized Treasury and Treasury-bill products. Some lending platforms also use PTs from these markets as collateral.
Based on the quarter-end schedule, positions worth $1.06 billion — 91% of TVL — were estimated to come due on or before Dec. 17.
