About

Pendle is a protocol initially deployed on Ethereum that provides a market for the yields of supported yield-bearing tokens. Pendle facilitates this market by splitting yield-bearing tokens into principal and yield tokens and offering liquidity pools by which these tokens can be traded. In doing so, Pendle offers a market for fixed and floating rates of supported yield-bearing tokens by which users can earn fixed yield, long yield (e.g., speculate on the yield of the underlying token increasing), and provide liquidity to the Pendle pool for the underlying token.

History

Pendle was co-founded by TN Lee, Vu Nguyen, GT, and YK and was first introduced by its former name, Benchmark, in November 2020 as “an on-chain yield asset aggregator enabling the separation and trading of future yield.”

Below is a timeline of key protocol developments:

• On March 20, 2021, the Pendle testnet was launched.
• On April 28, 2021, Pendle held its liquidity bootstrapping event for ERC-20 PENDLE, the day after the token contract was deployed on April 27, 2021.
• On June 16, 2021, Pendle launched on Ethereum, with users able to mint YT and OT (now PT) for aUSDC and cDAI, as well as trade and provide liquidity to YT and OT pools paired with the underlying yield-bearing token. Additionally, users could earn yield from both token’s LP token pairs and single-sided stake ERC-20 PENDLE.
• On Nov. 4, 2021, the project team announced Pendle on Avalanche C-Chain, with pools launched on Nov. 11, 2021. In addition, ERC-20 PENDLE was bridged to Avalanche C-Chain as ARC-20 PENDLE via Multichain (formerly Anyswap). It is important to note that on July 6, 2023, Multichain confirmed via a post on “X” that all Multichain bridges had been halted with no confirmed time to resume operations. As such, ARC-20 PENDLE on Avalanche C-Chain cannot be bridged for ERC-20 PENDLE on Ethereum and vice versa. The last Pendle V1 markets on Avalanche C-Chain expired in December 2023. As of April 8, 2024, only redemption of tokens previously deposited is available.
• On Nov. 29, 2022, Pendle V2 launched on Ethereum, introducing the AMM employed as of April 8, 2024, that allows trading of both PT and YT via a single liquidity pool pairing SY and PT of the underlying yield-bearing token. Pendle V2 also introduced auto-routing, which allows users to deposit other supported tokens subsequently swapped via third-party DEX for the underlying yield-bearing token that is then used to complete an action on Pendle. Finally, Pendle V2 introduced vePENDLE, a vote-escrowed version of ERC-20 PENDLE, based on the ve(3,3) mechanism Andre Cronje outlined.
• In March 2023, Pendle V2 launched on Arbitrum with support for GMX’s GLP token.
• On July 5, 2023, Pendle V2 launched on BNB Smart Chain with support for wBETH and THENA ETH-frxETH.
• On Aug. 8, 2023, the Mantle team announced Pendle had launched on Mantle. Based on a commercially reasonable search, in April 2024, USDe became the first token supported by Pendle V2 on Mantle.
• On Aug. 16, 2023, Pendle V2 launched on Optimism with support for wstETH and Rocket Pool’s rETH.
• On Jan. 11, 2024, the Pendle team introduced Limit Orders on select pools on Arbitrum. Limit Order allows users to place buy or sell orders for PT and YT at a specific implied APY.

On Feb. 26, 2024, the Pendle team announced in a Medium post that it was interested in exploring opportunities with partner projects to develop money markets, leverage strategies, index funds, structured products, derivatives, and collateralized debt positions (CDPs) for PTs, as well as vaults and autocompounders for YT, PT, or LP positions.

Additionally, Pendle has plans to launch Pendle V3; however, based on a commercially reasonable search as of April 8, 2024, further details regarding an intended Pendle V3 launch have not been disclosed.

As of the same date, the yield-bearing tokens that Pendle supports are permissioned and fully controlled by the Pendle team. However, the project’s documentation lists a “Creating New Pools” page that states “Coming Soon.” A commercially reasonable search identified no further disclosures from the Pendle team regarding this intended mechanism.