Author: Charles, Humble Farmer Army Research Translator: Shan Oppa, Golden Finance
Although Pendle has been online for quite some time, Pendle began to be adopted as a "gain trading" platform in early 2023 as the LSD industry boomed. By splitting assets into principal and yield components, Pendle allows yields to be tokenized and traded. Pendle allows users to purchase assets at a discount (similar to zero-coupon bonds) to generate fixed income, and speculate on the yield of certain income-generating assets (similar to interest rate swaps) through their principal and yield tokens.
Since then, as the surface area of yield tokens has expanded with each yield dollar, most recently, Liquid Recollateral Token (LRT) - Pendle We have been able to continuously iterate and support revenue transactions for these primitives. Pendle LRT markets are particularly successful as they essentially allow users to pre-sell or take advantage of long-term airdrop opportunities (including EigenLayer). These markets have quickly become the largest on Pendle by a wide margin:
Built by EigenLayer hype, the product’s success has brought positivity to the $PENDLE token Price dynamics until the end of the year:
Through custom integration of LRT, Pendle allows the main token to lock the basic staking ETH yield, EigenLayer airdrops, and issuance of LRT. Re-staking any airdrops related to the protocol. This creates an annual yield of more than 30% for PT buyers:
Yield Token, on the other hand, allows for some form of "leverage point farming," This is also due to the way LRT is integrated into Pendle. Through the swap function in Pendle, we can exchange 1eETH for 9.6 YT eETH, which will accumulate EigenLayer and Ether.fi points just like holding 9.6 eETH:
In fact, for eETH, YT buyers can also get a 2x multiplier of Ether.fi points, which is the real "leveraged airdrop mining"
Given that YT will trend toward zero as expiration approaches, YT buyers are betting that the value of the EigenLayer and Ether.fi (or Kelp in rsETH) airdrops will be greater than the ETH spent to purchase YT.
Given the expected size of the EigenLayer airdrop and the high demand for farming for the airdrop, it's no surprise that these light rail markets are gaining the most traction on Pendle . Locking in airdrops and leveraged yield farming in the form of ETH-denominated yields both serve very different market niches, but there appears to be significant demand for both. Pendle will likely continue to dominate this segment as they introduce additional LRT, and there may be speculation surrounding an AVS airdrop to LRT holders later this year... In this sense, $PENDLE is a strong candidate for LRT and EigenLayer Vertical success provides good index range exposure!