As a long-term DeFi ecosystem investor, my perspective on the PENDLE project continues to evolve. Initially attracted by its yield tokenization mechanism, looking back as we enter early 2026, this project's performance is indeed worth examining closely.

Currently, PENDLE's price is around $2.1 with a market cap of approximately $350 million. At first glance, this valuation seems somewhat off—a core innovative product whose market valuation appears not to fully reflect its value. After the entire market's dramatic volatility throughout 2025, PENDLE's TVL has surged to $3.68 billion instead, and this data speaks volumes in itself. Comparing the appreciation from the historical low of $0.03 to today's price, there has indeed been remarkable growth, but it still has considerable distance from the historical high of $7.5, which suggests implications that are self-evident.

PENDLE's core innovation lies in splitting future yields into two tradable tokens—PT (principal portion) and YT (yield portion). This design allows users to flexibly engage in trading, arbitrage, or lock in fixed returns. 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 ecosystem's performance. vePENDLE's lockup volume has reached a new high of 66.46 million, with an average lockup period of 1.43 years, data that reflects genuine community confidence. From an application perspective, PENDLE is gradually evolving from a retail participation tool into institution-grade trading infrastructure, particularly with its expansion on new chains like Arbitrum and Sonic underway. It may even potentially become a foundational layer in the derivatives sector.

If the DeFi ecosystem can achieve recovery in 2026, combined with perpetual futures market growth, PENDLE's price prediction range points toward conservative targets of $13-15, with some arguing it could potentially touch $40-50 levels. The key remains whether the overall market cycle pace aligns with this project's product iteration meeting expectations.