Can a decentralized finance protocol survive the transition from bull to bear markets? Ultimately, it depends on whether the economic model is robust enough. Many projects attract traffic during bull markets through high subsidies, but when the market turns bearish, they are left helpless—revenue dries up, tokens are dumped, and they end up fading away.

Lista DAO aims to create a foundational currency market on the BNB Chain, with an interesting approach. It’s not just a simple staking and lending model but has laid out a multi-layered economic system, attempting to find a balance between short-term incentives and long-term value. Will this design stand the test? Let’s break it down.

**Stability Fee + Liquidation Premium, Dual Revenue Drivers**

Where does Lista DAO’s money come from? Mainly two sources.

First is the stability fee. Users collateralize with slisBNB and borrow lisUSD, paying interest. This fee is carefully designed—it must cover the protocol’s risk management costs and serve as a tool to regulate the supply and demand of lisUSD, maintaining its price peg. The interest rate is not fixed; it adjusts dynamically based on market conditions and the deviation of lisUSD’s price. When the market is hot and borrowing is high, the rate goes up; when the market cools, the rate drops to attract users. The benefit of this approach is that revenue can be relatively stable and closely linked to the protocol’s utilization.

Second is the liquidation premium. When the collateral’s price drops near the liquidation threshold, the system triggers a liquidation mechanism. Liquidators buy the undervalued collateral, and the protocol earns a premium from these transactions. The size of this income directly depends on market volatility—the greater the volatility, the more liquidation opportunities arise. From a certain perspective, this is a mechanism through which the protocol profits inversely from risk management.

Both sources of income share a common feature: they are strongly correlated with actual financial activities, not just artificially created subsidies. During bull markets, user activity is high, and both revenue streams increase accordingly; during bear markets, although activity declines, there is still basic lending demand, preventing revenue from completely drying up. This is much more stable than projects that rely solely on mining rewards.