21Shares Launches Pendle ETP, Bridging DeFi and TradFi

The launch of 21Shares’ APEN ETP on the SIX Swiss Exchange represents a significant milestone in the maturation of decentralized finance infrastructure. By packaging Pendle’s exposure into a regulated exchange-traded product, 21Shares has created a familiar capital markets gateway for institutional investors seeking access to yield-tokenization platforms. This move addresses the core requirements of asset managers, hedge funds, and pension funds who demand scale, liquidity, transparency, and regulated access—elements traditionally associated with conventional financial instruments but now being delivered through DeFi-native architecture.

According to Abdelmawla Karim, Senior Digital Asset Researcher at 21Shares, “$PENDLE potential TAM is the massive interest rate derivatives, which alone represent $500T+ in TradFi. Fixed yields aren’t just a pillar of institutional finance, they are the market.” This statement underscores the monumental opportunity that Pendle’s infrastructure represents in accessing the vast traditional fixed-income markets through programmable, blockchain-based systems. The ETP launch effectively bridges the gap between DeFi protocols and institutional workflows, providing custody solutions, regulatory frameworks, and reporting structures that professional capital allocators require.

Pendle’s emergence as a credible institutional vehicle is supported by substantial on-chain metrics and product performance. The protocol has settled $70 billion in yield, effectively creating a functional bridge between the approximately $140 trillion global fixed-income market and crypto infrastructure. This settlement volume demonstrates both adoption and operational scale—two critical factors for institutional viability. The magnitude of this achievement positions Pendle as more than just another DeFi experiment, but rather as a substantive financial infrastructure component.

Further validating Pendle’s market position is the performance of its Boros product, designed for trading funding rates from various centralized and decentralized exchanges in a DeFi-native environment. Boros achieved an accumulated trading volume of $2.83 billion in just three months, highlighting the substantial demand for sophisticated yield-trading instruments within the crypto ecosystem. This trading volume, coupled with the yield settlement figures, provides concrete evidence of liquidity and market depth—essential prerequisites for institutional participation.

The architecture that enables this performance transforms yield streams into tradeable tokens, providing access, transparency, and composability that align with institutional tooling requirements. By separating and trading the future yield streams of yield-bearing assets in DeFi, Pendle has created a foundation for programmable fixed-income-style exposure on blockchain, effectively tokenizing both principal and yield components to create new financial instruments.

The 21Shares ETP launch symbolizes a broader shift in institutional attitudes toward DeFi-native infrastructure. As protocols like Pendle continue to integrate real-world assets and yield markets, their utility for professional investors is likely to expand significantly. The movement from experimental DeFi applications to regulated, investible instruments represents a critical evolution in the blockchain ecosystem’s maturation. Recent commentary from analysts, including TheDeFinvestor on X, reinforces this trend by highlighting how yield-tokenization has grown ready for institutions, underscoring the platform’s revenue-generating capabilities.

Looking ahead, with the institutional gateway now established via the 21Shares ETP, Pendle is positioned to scale its offerings through fixed-rate instruments, yield tokenization of new asset classes, and deeper tradable products. For institutions seeking to access the approximately $140 trillion fixed-income market through a programmable, permissionless lens, Pendle offers a contemporary avenue that combines the benefits of blockchain technology with the scale of traditional finance.

This development marks more than mere recognition—it represents a juncture where the world’s largest crypto-yield trading platform is entering the infrastructure of institutional finance. With tens of billions settled, billions in trading volume, and now ETP access, Pendle is transitioning from innovation to institutional-ready infrastructure, potentially setting the stage for broader adoption of DeFi mechanisms across traditional financial markets.