Pendle Unwinds Lockups in Major Tokenomics Reset

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🔄 Pendle replaces vePENDLE with flexible sPENDLE staking

• ⚠️ Paradex rolls back its chain after a pricing glitch wipes out traders

• 🏛️ NYSE prepares blockchain based trading for tokenized stocks

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Pendle Simplifies Its Tokenomics With sPENDLE

DeFi protocol Pendle is changing how its token system works, replacing vePENDLE with a new model called sPENDLE. The main idea is to remove long, inflexible lockups while keeping incentives aligned with the protocol’s growth.

Instead of locking tokens for years, users will be able to stake PENDLE and receive sPENDLE, which can be unstaked after 14 days. That makes participation more flexible and allows the token to be used across DeFi, rather than sitting idle. Protocol revenue will be used to buy back PENDLE and distribute it to active sPENDLE holders, linking rewards more directly to real usage.

Pendle is also moving away from manual voting to decide where emissions go. A new algorithmic system will handle this automatically, with the goal of cutting emissions by around 30 percent while allocating them more efficiently.

Current vePENDLE holders will receive a temporary boost in sPENDLE based on how long their existing locks last, which gradually fades over time. Overall, the update aims to make participation simpler, fairer, and less dependent on complex mechanics.

PENDLE’S price reacted positively to the announcement, and it is up 1.8% in the last 24 hours. 

Paradex Rollback Raises Hard Questions After Pricing Glitch Triggers Liquidations

Early Monday morning, something went badly wrong on Paradex. After routine maintenance, prices on the platform briefly collapsed, with bitcoin shown trading at zero. Within seconds, thousands of leveraged positions were wiped out.

For users watching in real time, it was chaos. Screens filled with liquidations before prices snapped back to normal. What initially looked like a display bug quickly became clear as something more serious.

Hours later, Paradex confirmed a technical error during database maintenance and announced a full rollback of the blockchain to a point just before the issue began. The team said user funds are safe and that the rollback will restore the system to its last correct state. Access to parts of the platform was restricted as engineers worked through recovery.

Rollbacks are rare in crypto because they undo confirmed transactions, cutting against the idea that blockchains are meant to be final and predictable. That is why the decision has unsettled some users, even if funds are ultimately restored.

Paradex processed nearly $1.6 billion in trading volume the day before the incident and has attracted hundreds of millions in deposits. The episode is a reminder that even large, fast-growing exchanges can fail in unexpected ways, and that trust in market infrastructure can disappear much faster than it is built.

NYSE’s Tokenized Trading Push Marks a Quiet Win for Crypto

The New York Stock Exchange is preparing to launch a platform for trading tokenized versions of U.S. stocks and ETFs, with trades settled on blockchain infrastructure and funded using stablecoins. Pending regulatory approval, the move would bring features long associated with crypto markets, such as instant settlement and 24/7 trading, into the core of traditional finance.

For crypto, the symbolism matters as much as the mechanics. This is not a startup experimenting at the edges. This is the New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange, redesigning market infrastructure with blockchain as a foundational layer. ICE is also working with major banks like BNY Mellon and Citigroup to support tokenized cash across its clearing systems, allowing capital to move outside traditional banking hours.

On Monday’s Bits + Bips livestream, Coinbase global head of research David Duong described the news as a moment of validation for crypto. It signals that ideas once seen as experimental are now being adopted by institutions built on scale, trust, and regulation.

Tokenized equities still represent a tiny share of global markets today. But moves like this suggest the direction of travel is no longer theoretical. Crypto infrastructure is steadily becoming part of the financial mainstream.

• 🇰🇷 South Korean customs authorities dismantled an international crypto laundering ring accused of moving about $102 million between 2021 and mid-2025 by cycling funds through digital assets and local banks, as part of a wider crackdown on illegal foreign-exchange activity.

• 🚨 Trove Markets abruptly switched its planned collectibles-focused perpetuals exchange from Hyperliquid to Solana just hours before its token launch, after a key liquidity backer exited over confidence concerns, forcing a full rebuild and triggering backlash following a chaotic $11.5 million token sale.

• 🌐 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong plans to use meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos to revive stalled U.S. crypto market-structure legislation, focusing on compromises around stablecoins after Coinbase pulled support over yield restrictions.

• 🔥 Ethereum layer 2 network MegaETH will open its mainnet for a high-intensity global stress test on Jan. 22, attempting to process 11 billion transactions in one week to prove it can support real-time games, DeFi apps, and consumer tools before a public launch.

• 💥 Makina Finance suffered a roughly $5 million exploit when an attacker used a massive flash loan to manipulate price data and drain a stablecoin pool, adding to a year already marked by record crypto thefts despite the protocol still verifying details.

• 🏝️🔗 Bermuda announced plans to move large parts of its national economy onto blockchain infrastructure with support from Coinbase and Circle, starting with government stablecoins and asset tokenization to lower costs and expand global financial access.

• 🚀💰 Pump.fun launched a new investment arm called Pump Fund and kicked it off with a $3 million hackathon, aiming to finance early-stage projects in its ecosystem by letting markets and token holders—not venture capitalists—decide which ideas succeed.

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