Catenaa, Tuesday, January 27, 2026-Pendle, the yield trading platform, announced it is phasing out its multi-year vePENDLE lockups and launching sPENDLE, a liquid staking alternative with a 14-day withdrawal period.
The shift aims to simplify participation, restore liquidity, and redirect protocol revenue toward token buybacks while reducing overall emissions by about 30%.
The previous vePENDLE system relied on non-transferable, long-term locks and weekly vote-to-earn mechanics, which Pendle said concentrated rewards among a small subset of users.
Only roughly 20% of the PENDLE supply participated in vePENDLE, the lowest engagement among comparable veToken models. Internal data indicated that more than 60% of markets were unprofitable despite fee efficiency exceeding emissions.
sPENDLE is fungible and composable, enabling holders to deploy it across eligible DeFi integrations while remaining active for rewards.
Governance participation remains a condition for eligibility, with rewards paused for 14 days if users fail to vote during Pendle Protocol Proposal windows.
Existing vePENDLE balances will convert into a boosted form of sPENDLE, with multipliers up to 4x based on remaining lock duration.
A snapshot for the boost calculation is scheduled for January 29 at 00:00 UTC, when new vePENDLE locks will also be paused and the revised incentive structure formally begins.
sPENDLE staking went live on January 20. Pendle’s native token is trading at $1.94, up 2.4% in the past 24 hours, roughly 74% below its April 2024 all-time high of $7.50, with a market capitalization of $327.7 million.
