If you’ve spent any time in DeFi, you know the story: there’s no shortage of flashy APYs, but truly predictable, stable yields – the kind that exist in traditional finance with bonds and savings products – are hard to find.
That’s the gap @Treehouse Official Protocol, built by $TREE house Labs, is aiming to fill. Their mission is bold but simple: bring fixed income products fully on-chain so users and institutions can earn reliable returns without chasing risky yield farms.
And they’re not just offering one product, they’re building the infrastructure layer DeFi has been missing:
1. tAssets – yield-boosted, on-chain tokens like tETH that take your staking rewards and make them work harder.
2. DOR (Decentralized Offered Rates) – the crypto version of a benchmark interest rate like LIBOR or SOFR, but fully transparent and consensus-driven.
This combination could be a game-changer for the way DeFi handles yield, lending, and even risk management.
Why Fixed Income Matters in DeFi
In traditional finance, the fixed income market – things like bonds, treasury bills, and fixed-rate loans – is massive. It’s the steady backbone behind pensions, insurance companies, and conservative investment portfolios.
In crypto, by contrast, yields are mostly variable and volatile. If you stake ETH or put USDC into a lending pool, your return changes daily. That makes it hard for long-term investors to plan and nearly impossible to price certain products, like fixed-rate loans or structured investments.
Treehouse’s CEO Brandon Goh has said that DeFi skipped an entire asset class by jumping straight to high-risk, variable yields without building the stable, reference-based layer first. And without a trusted benchmark rate, products like bonds or interest rate swaps just can’t function properly on-chain.
This isn’t just about making DeFi more boring, it’s about making it trustworthy and usable for serious capital.
The Two Pillars: tAssets and DOR
Treehouse’s solution rests on two innovations that work together:
1. tAssets – Your Crypto, Working Smarter
A tAsset (short for Treehouse Asset) is a yield-bearing token that starts with a base staking yield and then boosts it through a carefully managed strategy.
Take tETH, their flagship product:
You deposit ETH (or a liquid staking token like stETH)
The protocol stakes it to earn proof-of-stake rewards
It then supplies that staked ETH to lending markets like Aave, borrows ETH against it, and re-stakes – looping the process to capture the gap between staking yields and lending rates
This interest rate arbitrage generates what Treehouse calls Market Efficiency Yield (MEY) – extra return on top of your normal staking APR. And because tETH is a token, you can use it across DeFi – trade it, use it as collateral, or just hold it while the yield accrues.
Risk is managed through conservative leverage, automated monitoring, and an insurance fund in case of extreme events like an LST depeg or sudden interest rate spikes.
2. DOR – On-Chain Benchmark Interest Rates
DOR (Decentralized Offered Rates) is Treehouse’s attempt to create crypto’s version of a benchmark interest rate – but instead of a handful of banks setting it, it’s derived from a network of vetted participants submitting real data.
Roles in the DOR system include:
Operators – oversee a specific rate feed (e.g., ETH staking rate)
Panelists – submit their calculated rates, backed by staked tokens
Delegators – everyday users who delegate their tAssets to Panelists to support them and earn a cut of rewards
Referencers – protocols that use DOR rates in their products
The first live feed is TESR (Treehouse Ethereum Staking Rate), a transparent, consensus-driven daily ETH staking yield. In time, they plan to add lending rates, borrowing rates, and rates for other chains.
DOR matters because it allows other protocols to build fixed-rate products – loans, bonds, swaps – with a trustworthy, decentralized reference rate instead of guessing.
Why This Combo Is Powerful
tAssets create yield.
DOR standardizes yield.
Together, they form the base layer for an entire on-chain fixed income market:
Fixed-rate loans can be priced off DOR
tAssets can be used as collateral across DeFi
Interest rate derivatives like forwards and swaps become possible
It’s like building the crypto equivalent of both the bond market and the LIBOR or SOFR system that supports it.
Tokenomics and Governance
Treehouse’s native token, $TREE , powers the ecosystem:
Staking and Rewards – Panelists stake TREE to participate in DOR, accurate submissions earn TREE rewards
Data Fees – Protocols consuming DOR rates pay fees in TREE
Governance – TREE holders vote on new rate feeds, tAssets, risk parameters, and treasury use
Ecosystem Growth – A large chunk of supply is earmarked for community incentives and grants
The total supply is 1 billion TREE, with long-term vesting for insiders and generous allocations to community programs. This is designed to decentralize ownership and governance over time.
The Team and Backers
Treehouse Labs was founded by Brandon Goh, Bryan Goh, and Ben Lomond, combining Wall Street fixed income expertise with deep crypto experience.
Their backers are a mix of top-tier TradFi and crypto investors, including Binance Labs, Lightspeed, Jump Capital, Wintermute, and GSR, plus a venture arm of one of the world’s largest life insurance companies.
They’ve also attracted advisors from Ethena, Paxos, Etherscan, Chainlink, and Staking Rewards, giving them connections across the staking, infrastructure, and DeFi sectors.
Roadmap
Here’s what’s already shipped:
tETH launched on Ethereum and Arbitrum
TESR benchmark rate in pilot
TREE token launched with community airdrops
What’s next:
Full DOR mainnet launch with more benchmark feeds
More tAssets on multiple chains
Bamboo – a Forward Rate Agreement (FRA) market to let users lock in future interest rates
How It Stacks Up
Compared to other fixed income protocols:
Pendle lets you tokenize and trade yield streams but has no benchmark rate
Notional offers fixed-term loans but only within its pools
BarnBridge used tranching to split yields into fixed and variable
Maple focuses on institutional lending
@Treehouse Official is unique because it’s tackling both the yield product and the benchmark infrastructure, aiming to be the foundation others build on.
Why It Matters for You
If you’re a DeFi user, Treehouse offers a way to:
Earn boosted, relatively stable yield on major assets
Use those yield tokens in other strategies
Track benchmark rates to make smarter decisions
If you’re an institution, it offers:
A familiar, benchmark-based way to earn yield on-chain
The ability to price and hedge interest rate risk
A gateway into DeFi that feels closer to traditional fixed income markets