# Pendle (PENDLE): D-Score 26/100 — Centralized Leaning

**BlockIndex D-Score: 26/100 (Centralized Leaning).** Pendle (PENDLE) is a Layer 2 cryptocurrency using PoS consensus. Pendle: ERC-20 DeFi protocol tokenizing future yield with V2 AMM, vePENDLE governance, and multi-chain expansion.

_Source: https://blockindex.ai/coin/pendle · Data by BlockIndex.AI · Updated 2026-06-19_

## D-Score breakdown (0-100, higher means more decentralized)
| Component | Score |
| --- | --- |
| Overall D-Score | 26 |
| Node distribution | 0 |
| Initial distribution | 0 |
| Governance | 20 |
| Age and history | 6 |
| Autonomy | 0 |

## Key facts
- Layer: Layer 2
- Consensus: PoS (N/A)
- Launch: Other (2021)
- Founder: TN Lee, Vu Nguyen, GT, YK
- VC funded: Yes
- Max supply: N/A
- Circulating: 170,992,477

## Market data (as of 2026-06-19)
- Price: $1.36
- Market cap: $232.33M
- 24h volume: $40.5M
- 24h change: -4.72% · 7d change: +8.79%

## About
Pendle is a decentralized finance protocol that enables the tokenization and trading of future yield on yield-bearing assets. Launched as an ERC-20 token and protocol on Ethereum in 2021, Pendle separates yield-bearing assets into principal tokens (PTs) and yield tokens (YTs) and provides specialized AMM mechanics to price and trade time-decaying yield instruments. The protocol’s core innovation is its ability to split an underlying yield-bearing position into transferrable components, enabling traders, liquidity providers and asset managers to take directional or duration-based exposure to on-chain yield. Pendle’s product design appeals to builders of fixed-income-like instruments on-chain, liquidity providers seeking single-sided staking options, and traders who wish to arbitrage or speculate on future yield. Since its initial launch, Pendle has expanded from an Ethereum-native deployment to a broad multi-chain footprint, bringing PT/YT markets to Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain, Optimism, Avalanche C-Chain and additional networks while also planning non-EVM Citadel deployments such as Solana via cross-chain tooling.

Technically, Pendle centers on its V2 AMM (launched Nov 29, 2022) which introduced capital-efficiency features, single-pool trading for PT/YT, auto-routing and concentrated liquidity. Pendle’s protocol design leverages oracles and price feeds for PT valuation (examples include integration with RedStone’s Dynamic PT Oracle) and uses vePENDLE — a vote-escrowed token model inspired by ve(3,3) mechanics — to align long-term token-holder incentives and governance participation. The protocol supports sophisticated strategies including fixed yield positions, yield speculation, liquidity provisioning with curated pools (Pendle Prime), and the Boros product for tokenized perpetual funding-rate exposure. As an ERC-20 protocol token, Pendle inherits the underlying performance, security and consensus properties of its host chains; Pendle itself is not a standalone blockchain and therefore relies on the security and block production of Ethereum and the L2/L1 networks where markets are deployed.

From a product and ecosystem standpoint, Pendle’s adoption path shows typical DeFi evolution: testnet in March 2021, token contract deployment in April 2021 and mainnet operations in June 2021, followed by repeated cross-chain rollouts and product upgrades. The team has iterated from V1 to V2, launched across multiple EVM chains and introduced specialized features (vePENDLE, Pendle Prime, Boros). TVL milestones in 2025 show significant growth, with media-reported peaks and liquidity milestones in mid-to-late 2025. Integrations and partnerships (for example, Lista DAO collaboration, AEON Pay support, and RedStone oracle integration) reflect a growing ecosystem of complementary services and marketplace use-cases. Pendle’s token economics allocate roles for governance, staking and protocol incentives; vePENDLE lockups drive on-chain governance power and fee distribution mechanics. Public token supply data and circulating supply numbers are published on major aggregators, and multiple audits and security reviews have been referenced across the project’s lifecycle.

Governance for Pendle is primarily on-chain via vePENDLE token locking, which empowers token holders to influence fee distribution, market permissioning and protocol upgrades; the project is also VC-backed with multiple rounds and a variety of institutional investors referenced in public sources. Pendle’s risk profile centers on cross-chain bridge and oracle dependencies (notably the 2023 Multichain halt events that impacted bridged assets) and the complexity inherent in PT valuation and liquidity management — risks the team has sought to mitigate via third-party oracle integrations and repeated audits. Looking forward, the roadmap emphasizes V2 enhancements, Pendle V3 planning, Boros product maturation and Citadel expansion to non-EVM networks, with a focus on PT pricing, capital efficiency and institutional use-cases. Overall, Pendle represents a mature DeFi primitive for yield tokenization with active multi-chain deployments, a ve-style governance framework and an expanding set of composable financial products.

## Links
- Website: https://www.pendle.finance/
- Whitepaper: N/A
- GitHub: https://github.com/pendle-finance

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About the D-Score: BlockIndex.AI rates decentralization from 0 to 100 across node distribution, initial distribution, governance, age and history, and autonomy. Methodology: https://blockindex.ai/dscore