Pendle Review
Yield tokenisation with a flat 5% fee
of 10
Pendle tokenises future yield into tradable principal and yield tokens, collecting a flat 5% fee on all yield accrued by yield tokens plus a maturity-scaled swap fee. Its core is BUSL-1.1 and four audit sources are named.
No money changes hands. This is a non-commercial project: no advertising, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate or referral links. Links to the services below earn us nothing. Every overall score is the plain average of the criteria shown on the page, so you can check the arithmetic yourself — see our rating methodology and how the site is funded.
Yield fee
5% of all yield accrued by yield tokens
Swap fee
Maturity-scaled, set by pool deployer; no single figure
Model
Splits yield into principal (PT) and yield (YT) tokens
Licence
BUSL-1.1; change licence GPL-2.0-or-later
Auditors
Ackee, Dedaub, Dingbats, Code4rena
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (8.0 + 5.0 + 8.0 + 3.0 + 6.0) ÷ 5 = 6.0.
Pros
- Flat 5% fee on all yield accrued by yield tokens, published clearly
- Swap fee formula published: scales with time to maturity, set by the pool deployer
- Auditors named: Ackee, Dedaub, Dingbats and top Code4rena wardens
- A genuinely distinct model — separating principal from yield into tradable tokens
Cons
- Business Source License 1.1, not an open-source licence today
- No custody statement was found on the pages read
- The swap fee is variable per pool rather than a single figure
- The overview page returned 404, so the description came from the mechanics pages
A different kind of yield product
Pendle does not compound yield — it tokenises it, splitting a yield-bearing asset into a principal token and a yield token that trade separately on its own AMM. That lets a user sell future yield upfront or buy it at a discount, a genuinely distinct mechanism in this comparison, documented on the protocol's mechanics pages.
Fees, mostly published
Pendle collects a flat 5% fee on all yield accrued by every yield token in existence, which is clear and simple. The swap fee is a percentage that scales with time to maturity and is set by the pool deployer, so it varies rather than being a single published rate.
Licence and custody
The core is Business Source License 1.1, converting to GPL, so not open source today. No custody statement was found on the pages we read, which holds that score down. Auditors are named — Ackee, Dedaub, Dingbats and top Code4rena wardens.
Who builds Pendle?
Pendle launched on Ethereum in 2021 as a protocol for tokenising and trading future yield; it is publicly led by co-founder TN Lee, formerly of Kyber Network, though no legal entity is named on its own documentation. Governance runs through the PENDLE token, which is locked as vePENDLE to earn a share of protocol revenue, vote, and direct incentives. The vePENDLE lock-up model is central to how the protocol aligns long-term holders — understanding it is understanding Pendle.
How it compares
Origin (OUSD)
Rebasing yield stablecoin, MIT and net APY
Yearn Finance
AGPL-licensed with a named audit record
Convex Finance
MIT-licensed with fees published to the basis point
Idle Finance
Apache-licensed with net APY and named audits
Aura Finance
MIT-licensed with a published fee ceiling
Beefy
Eight named auditors, no licence file
Yield Yak
MIT-licensed, no deposit or withdraw fees
Harvest Finance
Named audits, ISC only in package.json
Sommelier
Apache-licensed cellars, audits unverified
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Pendle — fees mechanics — checked
- 2.Pendle — core LICENSE (BUSL-1.1) — checked
- 3.Pendle — security — checked
- 4.Pendle — documentation — checked
Frequently asked questions
What does Pendle charge?
A flat 5% fee on all yield accrued by yield tokens, plus a swap fee that scales with time to maturity and is set by each pool's deployer.
Is Pendle open source?
No. The core repository is under Business Source License 1.1, which converts to GPL-2.0-or-later on its change date.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.