Splits a yield-bearing token into a zero-coupon principal token and a yield token, so the PT buyer holds a rate fixed at execution and redeemable 1:1 for the accounting asset at a named expiry — the category's documentation reference, and the only venue left in it whose exit costs can still be measured at institutional size after an 86% TVL decline. Strongest on what happens at maturity (10/10): Re-fetched 2026-08-13 from raw server-rendered HTML, because summarising fetchers truncate this answer mid-sentence. The FAQ is character-exact: "Nothing is lost. Your PT stays redeemable 1:1 and your LP rewards stay claimable, but neither earns any further yield, so your capital sits idle. You can roll over into a… Weakest on who owes you the fixed leg if the strategy misses (7/10): The criterion's own 3-4 reference says Pendle's risk warning covers third-party exploits "without addressing an underlying that simply under-earns." That premise does not survive checking.
Fixed-Rate Yield
Fixed-Rate Yield evaluated across what happens at maturity, is the rate actually fixed, and who can change it, the price of leaving early, and who owes you the fixed leg if the strategy misses.
Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 32/26/24/18, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20, evidence depth 18, ease of use 10, institutional trust 8. Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.
What matters most before choosing in this category
A fixed rate is a promise with a date attached, so the first question is not how large the rate is — it is what happens when it ends. That carries the most weight here because the published answers diverge completely: some venues state, with a worked formula, that a matured position simply stops accruing and can be claimed with no deadline; on others nothing published tells a holder what happens if they hold past maturity and do nothing at all. Then ask whether the rate is genuinely fixed or merely quoted, because on at least one venue the protocol fee is an on-chain parameter an admin can change, with no numeric rate published anywhere in its documentation and an on-chain ceiling of one hundred percent. Then price the exit, since the whole point of a term is that leaving early costs something — and this category has consolidated so hard that depth is scarce: the leader's TVL fell roughly 86% in twelve months and is still, by a wide margin, the only venue deep enough to sell into. Read the mechanism and the order book separately, because a clean redemption invariant with nobody on the other side is a rate you can enter and cannot leave.
A fixed rate is a promise with a date attached, so the first question is not how large the rate is — it is what happens when it ends. That carries the most weight here because the published answers diverge completely: some venues state, with a worked formula, that a matured position simply stops accruing and can be claimed with no deadline; on others nothing published tells a holder what happens if they hold past maturity and do nothing at all. Then ask whether the rate is genuinely fixed or merely quoted, because on at least one venue the protocol fee is an on-chain parameter an admin can change, with no numeric rate published anywhere in its documentation and an on-chain ceiling of one hundred percent. Then price the exit, since the whole point of a term is that leaving early costs something — and this category has consolidated so hard that depth is scarce: the leader's TVL fell roughly 86% in twelve months and is still, by a wide margin, the only venue deep enough to sell into. Read the mechanism and the order book separately, because a clean redemption invariant with nobody on the other side is a rate you can enter and cannot leave.
Expert review and scoring weights
How this category is reviewed
Reviewed on what happens at maturity, is the rate actually fixed, and who can change it, the price of leaving early, and who owes you the fixed leg if the strategy misses.