We examined star DeFi projects with “real yields”—Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE)—and raised a core question: As token prices fall, do their fundamentals remain strong, or is the yield itself under pressure? The answer is a mixed bag: ENA incurred huge costs, but almost all of these costs were recycled to subsidize TVL, so the agreement’s actual “surplus” was negligible. Pendle 's fundamentals deteriorated along with its price. With TVL plummeting to approximately $3.6 billion, the current sell-off is not a divergence between price and value, but rather a rational market reaction to business contraction. HYPE is a giant money-printing machine, generating over $1.2 billion in annualized revenue, almost all of which is used for token buybacks—but its price already reflects winner expectations and it is currently maintaining growth by reducing fees. From a broader perspective: the market does offer better entry points, but the "real yield" narrative needs careful scrutiny. ENA is over-subsidized, HYPE is cutting take-rates, and PENDLE is experiencing significant user churn. It's premature to declare this the time to "buy any real yield token on dips." The “Real Benefits” Framework: What Should It Measure? When filtering for "real yield tokens", it's easy to oversimplify and look for: "Increased fees + decreased coin price = a good entry point." On-chain data allows us to see deeper. For each protocol, we ask four key questions: Fees: Are users still paying, or has the activity level peaked and started to decline? Agreement Revenue: What percentage of these fees actually belong to the agreement? Earnings vs. Incentives: How much is left after deducting token incentives and subsidies? Valuation: What multiple of revenue/earnings are we paying at the current price? DefiLlama conveniently lists the fees, protocol revenue, token holder revenue, and incentives for each protocol. Based on this, we will evaluate Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE) – not to find the “healthiest” one, but to show where there are real price-fundamental divergences and where “revenue” is being embellished by fee reductions or incentives. Ethena (ENA): High fees, meager profits, and heavy subsidies. Ethena is trading at approximately $0.28–0.29, with a market capitalization of $2.1 billion. Its total value locked (TVL) of $7.3 billion generates annualized fees of approximately $365 million. However, since the vast majority of these fees are recycled for incentives to maintain high yields, the protocol's actual annualized revenue is only about $600,000, leaving almost no net surplus for holders. Buying on this dip is not a value investment based on current profit/loss (P/L), but rather a structured bet that Ethena will eventually normalize subsidies without causing a collapse in its user base. Fees and Revenue Overview: Ethena's merged USDe contracts on Ethereum currently hold approximately $7.3 billion in TVL. On DefiLlama's fee dashboard, Ethena looks like a machine: Annualized cost: ≈ US$365 million Total costs: ≈ US$616 million But the key line to look at is "Agreement Revenue": Annualized income: only about $600,000 30-day income: approximately $49,000 As for incentives? This is where the gap comes from: most of the fee stream is actually circulated into user benefits and incentives, leaving very little net benefit for ENA holders relative to the high fee headers. Pendle (PENDLE): A Reasonable Sell-Off PENDLE is trading at approximately $2.70, down about 64% from its all-time high (ATH) of $7.50. Its free float market capitalization is approximately $450-460 million, and its fully diluted valuation (FDV) is approximately $770 million. Fees and Revenue Overview: Pendle's core business is tokenizing revenue and allowing users to trade PT/YT pairs. According to DefiLlama's data today: Annualized cost: ≈ US$45.7 million Annualized contract revenue: ≈ US$44.9 million Annualized income per holder (vePENDLE): ≈ $35.9 million Annualized incentives: ≈ US$10.8 million Although commission rates remain strong (almost all fees are converted into revenue), the absolute figures are shrinking. The most critical data point regarding Pendle 's collapse in TVL is the rapid contraction of its asset size. Although its total TVL was previously high, recent data shows it has dropped significantly to approximately $3.6 billion . This represents a significant reduction in the capital base that generates revenue-related expenses. This is not a divergence between falling prices and growing business, but rather a convergence: the price crash is due to a drop in TVL (TVL). This is perfectly normal market behavior. The pitfall: Pendle's cyclical realization of yield relies on on-chain yield monetization. We are now seeing a downward cycle in this model. As LSD/LRT yields compress and stablecoin arbitrage profits flatten, the demand for locking in yields and trading is rapidly shrinking. The significant drop in TVL indicates that capital is fleeing yield trading. Given that revenue is a function of TVL, a 64% price decline is rational. With the business metric (TVL) falling by nearly two-thirds from its peak, going long on Pendle is strongly discouraged in the current environment. The market has correctly identified that the growth phase has temporarily ended. Hyperliquid (HYPE): A machine with over $1 billion in revenue, now cutting rates. Hyperliquid is trading at approximately $35–36 , with a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion–$10 billion . Its massive engine generates approximately $1.21 billion in annualized revenue with zero incentive emissions . However, the investment logic is shifting from "pure cash flow" to "aggressive growth" as the team cuts taker fees by up to 90% in new markets to dominate the long tail. Therefore, HYPE's current pricing is already a winner's valuation (approximately 8–10 times price-to-sales ratio ), and future returns will depend on whether these fee cuts successfully drive a large-scale expansion of trading volume. Hyperliquid is now the largest perpetual contract trading venue among on-chain metrics: Annualized cost: ≈ $1.34 billion Annualized revenue: ≈ $1.21 billion Annualized holder income: ≈ $1.2 billion Annualized incentive: $0 (Airdrop not yet confirmed) We believe: The income is real . There is no clear incentive for emissions erosion profit and loss statement; the user's main focus is on using the product, rather than simply for agricultural airdrops. Almost all of the revenue was designated for the buyback and destruction of HYPE through the aid fund. Based on DefiLlama's current data, compared to its market capitalization of approximately $9 billion to $10 billion, this represents a P/S ratio of roughly 8 to 10 times —not absurd for a rapidly growing exchange, but certainly not undervalued to the point of being "halved." New growth areas The key difference this quarter is that Hyperliquid is no longer simply "letting revenue soar and then buying back shares." It's now taking proactive steps: HIP-3 opens up a licenseless marketplace where marketplace deployers can share in the revenue; and For the new HIP-3 market, taker fees will be reduced by up to ~90% to drive trading volume in long-tail perpetual contracts (equities, niche assets, etc.). HIP-3's public posts and trading documents outline the fee arrangements for this "growth model." In summary: What was mispriced? After reviewing the facts, we have drawn some preliminary conclusions: 1. "Real profits" alone are not enough. ENA proves that fees ≠ surplus. The protocol showed hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized fees, but after paying TVL costs and user revenue, almost nothing was left for token holders. HYPE shows that revenue is endogenous: when teams compete for market share by lowering fees, revenue and its multipliers change with decisions made, not just with user demand. Any "bottom-fishing" screening that stops at "fee increases" will systematically misjudge these projects. 2. Pendle is a "value trap," not a value buy, and the data shows a clear collapse in fundamentals. TVL has collapsed to approximately $3.6 billion. Income shrinks along with the asset base. The token has fallen significantly, but core business usage is also declining sharply. This is not mispricing; it's repricing. The market has correctly discounted the token because the protocol is facing a severe contraction in demand. 3. Even winners face pressure . The most important lesson about market timing: HYPE lowers fees to grow new markets ENA's maintenance of extremely high subsidy levels to keep USDe attractive suggests that even leading protocols are feeling the pressure of the current environment. If the leaders are adjusting their fee rates and incentives, and former darlings like Pendle are facing massive capital outflows, then we may not be in a period where we can blindly buy any fee-revenue token. Conclusion Yes, there are indeed divergences, but not all of them are bullish. PENDLE looks like a project whose business is rapidly shrinking, validating the bearish price action. HYPE and ENA 's revenues are still holding up well—but their own decisions (fee reductions, subsidies) indicate that the environment remains fragile.We examined star DeFi projects with “real yields”—Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE)—and raised a core question: As token prices fall, do their fundamentals remain strong, or is the yield itself under pressure? The answer is a mixed bag: ENA incurred huge costs, but almost all of these costs were recycled to subsidize TVL, so the agreement’s actual “surplus” was negligible. Pendle 's fundamentals deteriorated along with its price. With TVL plummeting to approximately $3.6 billion, the current sell-off is not a divergence between price and value, but rather a rational market reaction to business contraction. HYPE is a giant money-printing machine, generating over $1.2 billion in annualized revenue, almost all of which is used for token buybacks—but its price already reflects winner expectations and it is currently maintaining growth by reducing fees. From a broader perspective: the market does offer better entry points, but the "real yield" narrative needs careful scrutiny. ENA is over-subsidized, HYPE is cutting take-rates, and PENDLE is experiencing significant user churn. It's premature to declare this the time to "buy any real yield token on dips." The “Real Benefits” Framework: What Should It Measure? When filtering for "real yield tokens", it's easy to oversimplify and look for: "Increased fees + decreased coin price = a good entry point." On-chain data allows us to see deeper. For each protocol, we ask four key questions: Fees: Are users still paying, or has the activity level peaked and started to decline? Agreement Revenue: What percentage of these fees actually belong to the agreement? Earnings vs. Incentives: How much is left after deducting token incentives and subsidies? Valuation: What multiple of revenue/earnings are we paying at the current price? DefiLlama conveniently lists the fees, protocol revenue, token holder revenue, and incentives for each protocol. Based on this, we will evaluate Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE) – not to find the “healthiest” one, but to show where there are real price-fundamental divergences and where “revenue” is being embellished by fee reductions or incentives. Ethena (ENA): High fees, meager profits, and heavy subsidies. Ethena is trading at approximately $0.28–0.29, with a market capitalization of $2.1 billion. Its total value locked (TVL) of $7.3 billion generates annualized fees of approximately $365 million. However, since the vast majority of these fees are recycled for incentives to maintain high yields, the protocol's actual annualized revenue is only about $600,000, leaving almost no net surplus for holders. Buying on this dip is not a value investment based on current profit/loss (P/L), but rather a structured bet that Ethena will eventually normalize subsidies without causing a collapse in its user base. Fees and Revenue Overview: Ethena's merged USDe contracts on Ethereum currently hold approximately $7.3 billion in TVL. On DefiLlama's fee dashboard, Ethena looks like a machine: Annualized cost: ≈ US$365 million Total costs: ≈ US$616 million But the key line to look at is "Agreement Revenue": Annualized income: only about $600,000 30-day income: approximately $49,000 As for incentives? This is where the gap comes from: most of the fee stream is actually circulated into user benefits and incentives, leaving very little net benefit for ENA holders relative to the high fee headers. Pendle (PENDLE): A Reasonable Sell-Off PENDLE is trading at approximately $2.70, down about 64% from its all-time high (ATH) of $7.50. Its free float market capitalization is approximately $450-460 million, and its fully diluted valuation (FDV) is approximately $770 million. Fees and Revenue Overview: Pendle's core business is tokenizing revenue and allowing users to trade PT/YT pairs. According to DefiLlama's data today: Annualized cost: ≈ US$45.7 million Annualized contract revenue: ≈ US$44.9 million Annualized income per holder (vePENDLE): ≈ $35.9 million Annualized incentives: ≈ US$10.8 million Although commission rates remain strong (almost all fees are converted into revenue), the absolute figures are shrinking. The most critical data point regarding Pendle 's collapse in TVL is the rapid contraction of its asset size. Although its total TVL was previously high, recent data shows it has dropped significantly to approximately $3.6 billion . This represents a significant reduction in the capital base that generates revenue-related expenses. This is not a divergence between falling prices and growing business, but rather a convergence: the price crash is due to a drop in TVL (TVL). This is perfectly normal market behavior. The pitfall: Pendle's cyclical realization of yield relies on on-chain yield monetization. We are now seeing a downward cycle in this model. As LSD/LRT yields compress and stablecoin arbitrage profits flatten, the demand for locking in yields and trading is rapidly shrinking. The significant drop in TVL indicates that capital is fleeing yield trading. Given that revenue is a function of TVL, a 64% price decline is rational. With the business metric (TVL) falling by nearly two-thirds from its peak, going long on Pendle is strongly discouraged in the current environment. The market has correctly identified that the growth phase has temporarily ended. Hyperliquid (HYPE): A machine with over $1 billion in revenue, now cutting rates. Hyperliquid is trading at approximately $35–36 , with a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion–$10 billion . Its massive engine generates approximately $1.21 billion in annualized revenue with zero incentive emissions . However, the investment logic is shifting from "pure cash flow" to "aggressive growth" as the team cuts taker fees by up to 90% in new markets to dominate the long tail. Therefore, HYPE's current pricing is already a winner's valuation (approximately 8–10 times price-to-sales ratio ), and future returns will depend on whether these fee cuts successfully drive a large-scale expansion of trading volume. Hyperliquid is now the largest perpetual contract trading venue among on-chain metrics: Annualized cost: ≈ $1.34 billion Annualized revenue: ≈ $1.21 billion Annualized holder income: ≈ $1.2 billion Annualized incentive: $0 (Airdrop not yet confirmed) We believe: The income is real . There is no clear incentive for emissions erosion profit and loss statement; the user's main focus is on using the product, rather than simply for agricultural airdrops. Almost all of the revenue was designated for the buyback and destruction of HYPE through the aid fund. Based on DefiLlama's current data, compared to its market capitalization of approximately $9 billion to $10 billion, this represents a P/S ratio of roughly 8 to 10 times —not absurd for a rapidly growing exchange, but certainly not undervalued to the point of being "halved." New growth areas The key difference this quarter is that Hyperliquid is no longer simply "letting revenue soar and then buying back shares." It's now taking proactive steps: HIP-3 opens up a licenseless marketplace where marketplace deployers can share in the revenue; and For the new HIP-3 market, taker fees will be reduced by up to ~90% to drive trading volume in long-tail perpetual contracts (equities, niche assets, etc.). HIP-3's public posts and trading documents outline the fee arrangements for this "growth model." In summary: What was mispriced? After reviewing the facts, we have drawn some preliminary conclusions: 1. "Real profits" alone are not enough. ENA proves that fees ≠ surplus. The protocol showed hundreds of millions of dollars in annualized fees, but after paying TVL costs and user revenue, almost nothing was left for token holders. HYPE shows that revenue is endogenous: when teams compete for market share by lowering fees, revenue and its multipliers change with decisions made, not just with user demand. Any "bottom-fishing" screening that stops at "fee increases" will systematically misjudge these projects. 2. Pendle is a "value trap," not a value buy, and the data shows a clear collapse in fundamentals. TVL has collapsed to approximately $3.6 billion. Income shrinks along with the asset base. The token has fallen significantly, but core business usage is also declining sharply. This is not mispricing; it's repricing. The market has correctly discounted the token because the protocol is facing a severe contraction in demand. 3. Even winners face pressure . The most important lesson about market timing: HYPE lowers fees to grow new markets ENA's maintenance of extremely high subsidy levels to keep USDe attractive suggests that even leading protocols are feeling the pressure of the current environment. If the leaders are adjusting their fee rates and incentives, and former darlings like Pendle are facing massive capital outflows, then we may not be in a period where we can blindly buy any fee-revenue token. Conclusion Yes, there are indeed divergences, but not all of them are bullish. PENDLE looks like a project whose business is rapidly shrinking, validating the bearish price action. HYPE and ENA 's revenues are still holding up well—but their own decisions (fee reductions, subsidies) indicate that the environment remains fragile.

        Highlights:  US prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for Do Kwon after the Terra collapse. Terraform’s $40 billion downfall caused huge losses and sparked a long downturn in crypto markets.  Do Kwon will face sentencing on December 11 and must give up $19 million in earnings.   US prosecutors have asked a judge to give Do Kwon, Terraform Labs co-founder, a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the remarkable $40 billion collapse of the Terra and Luna tokens. The request also seeks to finalize taking away Kwon’s criminal earnings.  The court filing came in New York’s Southern District on Thursday. This is about four months after Kwon admitted guilt on two charges: wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Prosecutors said Kwon caused more losses than Samuel Bankman-Fried, Alexander Mashinsky, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood combined.  U.S. prosecutors have asked a New York federal judge to sentence Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to 12 years in prison, calling his role in the 2022 TerraUSD collapse a “colossal” fraud that triggered broader crypto-market failures, including the downfall of FTX. Sentencing is… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 5, 2025  Terraform Collapse Shakes Crypto Market Authorities explained that Terraform’s collapse affected the entire crypto market. They said it helped trigger what is now called the ‘Crypto Winter.’ The filing stressed that Kwon’s conduct harmed many investors and the broader crypto world. On Thursday, prosecutors said Kwon must give up just over $19 million. They added that they will not ask for any additional restitution. They said: “The cost and time associated with calculating each investor-victim’s loss, determining whether the victim has already been compensated through the pending bankruptcy, and then paying out a percentage of the victim’s losses, will delay payment and diminish the amount of money ultimately paid to victims.” Authorities will sentence Do Kwon on December 11. They charged him in March 2023 with multiple crimes, including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering, and wire fraud. All connections are tied to his role at Terraform. After Terra fell in 2022, authorities lost track of Kwon until they arrested him in Montenegro on unrelated charges and sent him to the U.S. Do Kwon’s Legal Case and Sentencing In April last year, a jury ruled that both Terraform and Kwon committed civil fraud. They found the company and its co-founder misled investors about how the business operated and its finances. Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, submitted the sentencing request in November.  TERRA STATEMENT: “We are very disappointed with the verdict, which we do not believe is supported by the evidence. We continue to maintain that the SEC does not have the legal authority to bring this case at all, and we are carefully weighing our options and next steps.” — Zack Guzmán  (@zGuz) April 5, 2024  The news of Kwon’s sentencing caused Terraform’s token, LUNA, to jump over 40% in one day, from $0.07 to $0.10. Still, this rise remains small compared to its all-time high of more than $19, which the ecosystem reached before collapsing in May 2022. In a November court filing, Do Kwon’s lawyers asked for a maximum five-year sentence. They argued for a shorter term partly because he could face up to 40 years in prison in South Korea, where prosecutors are also pursuing a case against him. The legal team added that even if Kwon serves time in the U.S., he would not be released freely. He would be moved from prison to an immigration detention center and then sent to Seoul to face pretrial detention for his South Korea charges.    eToro Platform    Best Crypto Exchange   Over 90 top cryptos to trade Regulated by top-tier entities User-friendly trading app 30+ million users    9.9   Visit eToro eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.