As a long-term investor focused on the DeFi ecosystem, my view on the PENDLE project has been continuously evolving. Initially attracted by its yield tokenization mechanism, looking back to early 2026, the project's performance indeed warrants close attention.

Currently, PENDLE's price is around $2.1, with a market cap of approximately $350 million. At first glance, this valuation seems a bit off—the core innovative product's market valuation doesn't seem to fully reflect its value. After the intense market fluctuations in 2025, PENDLE's TVL actually surged to 3.68 billion, and this data speaks for itself. Comparing the rise from its historical low of $0.03 to the current level, there has been an astonishing growth, but it still has a long way to go to reach its all-time high of $7.5, which is quite telling.

The core innovation of PENDLE lies in splitting future yields into two tradable tokens—PT (principal part) and YT (yield part). This design allows users to trade, arbitrage, or lock in fixed returns flexibly. Against the backdrop of increasingly mature RWA (Real World Assets) and multi-chain ecosystems, the application prospects of this mechanism are quite broad.

Even more interesting is the performance on the ecosystem side. The locked amount of vePENDLE has hit a new high of 66.46 million, with an average lock-up period of 1.43 years, reflecting genuine community confidence. From an application perspective, PENDLE is gradually evolving from a tool for retail participation into an institutional-grade trading infrastructure. Expansion on new chains like Arbitrum and Sonic is underway, and in the future, it could even become a foundational layer in the derivatives space.

If the DeFi ecosystem can recover in 2026, combined with the growth of the perpetual contract market, the price forecast for PENDLE is conservatively targeted at $13-15, with some opinions even suggesting it could reach the $40-50 range. Ultimately, it depends on the overall market cycle and whether the project's product iterations can keep pace with expectations.