The development of the DeFi fixed income market has always faced three deep-seated contradictions: first, the lack of a recognized interest rate benchmark leads to chaotic product pricing, making it difficult for institutions to enter at scale; second, liquid staking assets generally face the dilemma of 'high liquidity low yield' or 'high yield low liquidity'; third, the compliance and security standards of traditional finance and DeFi are incompatible, hindering the access of trillion-level real assets (RWA). TreehouseFi is not simply layering product functions; rather, it reconstructs the value logic of the fixed income market from the ground up through the collaborative design of decentralized interest rate benchmark (DOR) and cross-chain liquid staking assets (tAssets), solving current pain points while building a long-term bridge connecting the crypto ecosystem with traditional finance.
I. Core Contradiction Resolution: From 'Pain Point Response' to 'System Reconstruction'
TreehouseFi's underlying design revolves around the three core contradictions of DeFi fixed income, forming targeted solutions rather than partial optimizations.
To address the issue of 'missing interest rate benchmarks', DOR constructs the first on-chain credible interest rate benchmark system through a full-process mechanism of 'node screening - data cleaning - consensus weighting'. Unlike the internal interest rates of traditional DeFi protocols, DOR aggregates real data from leading staking protocols such as Lido and Rocket Pool, and requires quoted nodes to stake $TREE or tAssets to bind economic interests. Through the '3σ principle', it eliminates abnormal quotes and randomly samples for verification, ensuring data resistance to manipulation. As of September 2025, DOR has cumulatively generated over 1,200 sets of Ethereum staking interest rate (TESR) data, with the deviation from the market's actual average interest rate stabilizing within 0.08%. Not only has it been included in official references by data platforms such as CoinGecko, but it has also become the on-chain pricing basis for five traditional asset management institutions, filling the industry's gap of 'no benchmark' in DeFi fixed income.
In the face of the 'conflict between liquidity and yield', tAssets achieve a dual breakthrough through 'dynamic arbitrage engine + cross-chain native architecture'. On the one hand, tAssets holders not only receive the basic staking yield from Ethereum PoS but also automatically capture the interest rate spreads from lending platforms such as Aave and Compound through smart contracts, achieving an aggregation of 'basic yield + arbitrage yield', making the annualized yield of tETH higher than that of stETH by 0.8%-1.5%; on the other hand, its cross-chain design based on Hyperlane enables asset interoperability across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle without third-party bridging, reducing cross-chain transfer costs by 60% and shortening the transfer time to within 3 minutes, allowing users to flexibly allocate assets across different chains for the highest yield, completely breaking the liquidity dilemma of 'staking means locking'.
II. Architectural Innovation: 'Synergy and Decoupling' Under Modular Design
TreehouseFi's technical architecture adopts a 'modular + layered design', achieving deep synergy between DOR and tAssets while maintaining their independence, preserving space for ecosystem expansion, which is the key innovation that distinguishes it from other fixed income protocols.
From the perspective of 'synergy', DOR and tAssets create a bidirectional empowerment: the yield calculation of tAssets is based on DOR, ensuring comparability of yields across different chains and protocols; while the widespread adoption of tAssets provides more real market data samples for DOR, further enhancing the fairness of the interest rate benchmark. For example, when users stake tETH on the Arbitrum chain to earn yields, the 'market efficiency part' of their earnings needs to reference the cross-chain interest rate difference calculated by DOR. This process not only makes user earnings more transparent but also supplements DOR with cross-chain market interest rate data, forming a positive cycle of 'data-pricing-yield'.
From the perspective of 'decoupling', DOR and tAssets exist as independent modules, capable of separately interfacing with external ecosystems, avoiding the risk of a single module transmitting to the whole. The DOR module can independently provide interest rate data services to other protocols, with six leading protocols including Aave and Pendle already connected to the DOR API; the tAssets module, on the other hand, can act as an independent cross-chain staking asset, connecting to different lending and derivatives platforms without relying on DOR's operational status. This design of 'synergy without binding' enhances the ecosystem's flexibility and reduces overall risk, laying the foundation for subsequently connecting more asset types (such as BTC and DOT staking) and market scenarios (such as cross-border payments).
In addition, its cross-chain architecture adopts 'decentralized verification nodes + atomic swaps' technology to ensure the value consistency of tAssets across different chains. When users cross-chain tETH from Ethereum to Arbitrum, the system automatically generates corresponding asset certificates and locking records on both chains, confirming transaction validity through Hyperlane's verification node network to avoid double spending or loss of assets. This security mechanism ensures that the cross-chain asset security of tAssets reaches 99.99%, meeting the stringent asset security requirements of institutional users.
III. Scene Implementation: From 'Product Design' to 'User Value Verification'
The ecological value of TreehouseFi does not stay at the technical level, but rather achieves real verification of user value through the implementation of three core scenarios: retail, institutional, and RWA, driving continuous growth of TVL and user scale.
In retail user scenarios, its 'low threshold + high transparency' design reduces the participation difficulty in DeFi fixed income. Users only need to deposit ETH or stETH on the TreehouseFi platform to automatically generate tAssets and start earning yields without manually operating arbitrage strategies; at the same time, the platform visually displays the composition of tAssets' earnings (basic staking, arbitrage, points rewards) in real time, allowing users to clearly see the source of each income. This 'foolproof operation + transparent earnings' model has attracted over 65,000 retail users, of which 30% are new users encountering DeFi fixed income for the first time, significantly reducing the industry's user education costs.
In institutional user scenarios, compliance and customization services become key breakthroughs. The 'Treehouse Citadel' compliant version launched by TreehouseFi for institutional users has not only completed compliance filings with the US MSB and the EU MiCA, but has also collaborated with compliant custodians such as Fireblocks and Anchorage Digital to achieve multi-signature custody and on-chain monitoring of assets. For the long-term allocation needs of institutional users, it also provides 'fixed interest rate + interest rate hedging' customized plans. For example, a '1-year DOR-linked fixed income product' designed for a family office controls yield fluctuations within ±0.5%. Currently, eight traditional asset management institutions have entered through this plan, contributing $280 million in TVL, accounting for 52% of the total TVL in the ecosystem, becoming the core driving force for ecosystem growth.
In the RWA scenario, TreehouseFi, through the collaboration between DOR and tAssets, addresses the 'pricing difficulties' and 'poor liquidity' issues of RWA tokenization. Traditional RWA tokenization (such as on-chain government bonds) struggles to determine reasonable issuance rates due to the lack of fair on-chain interest rate benchmarks; while the cross-chain liquidity of tAssets provides collateral endorsement for RWA tokens. Currently, TreehouseFi has partnered with three RWA platforms, including Centrifuge and Maple Finance, to provide pricing benchmarks for on-chain government bonds based on DOR, allowing users to borrow RWA tokens by collateralizing tAssets, improving the issuance efficiency of RWA tokens by 70% and liquidity by 55%, pushing the RWA scale within the ecosystem to exceed $80 million, and becoming an important link between the crypto market and real assets.
IV. Value Loop: Cash Flow Driven 'Ecosystem Sustainability'
TreehouseFi's long-term competitiveness stems from its construction of a cash flow-centered value loop, avoiding the 'eating the seed grain' dilemma of traditional DeFi protocols that rely on token incentives, achieving simultaneous growth of ecosystem and token value.
Its cash flow sources mainly include three major segments: first, DOR data service fees, where enterprises or protocols calling DOR data must pay $TREE based on frequency, with an average daily call volume of 6,200 times and monthly revenue of $150,000; second, tAssets operational service fees, where users conducting tAssets cross-chain, arbitrage, or staking operations must pay a service fee of 0.1%-0.3%, with average monthly revenue of $90,000; third, ecological cooperation sharing, with collaborations with protocols such as Aave and Pendle, TreehouseFi can earn a 10% share of the revenue from cooperative products, with average monthly share income of $180,000. These three segments form a stable cash flow, achieving an average monthly total revenue of $420,000, providing continuous financial support for the ecosystem.
The distribution of cash flow follows the principle of 'ecosystem priority, multi-party win-win': 50% is used for dividends for TREE stakers, incentivizing users to hold long-term and participate in ecosystem governance; 30% is injected into the ecosystem fund for developer subsidies, hackathons, and new scene expansion, currently supporting 27 innovative projects based on DOR or tAssets; 20% is used for team and core contributor incentives, which must be locked for four years with linear unlocking to avoid short-term selling pressure. This distribution mechanism deeply binds the value of TREE with the ecosystem's cash flow— as the call volume of DOR and the scale of tAssets grow, cash flow increases in sync, and staker dividends rise, thus attracting more users to stake $TREE, forming a positive cycle of 'cash flow growth → token demand increase → ecosystem expansion → cash flow growth again.'
As of September 2025, the staking rate of $TREE has stabilized at 68%, an increase of 42 percentage points from the initial TGE; the ratio of the token's circulating market value to ecosystem TVL (MV/TVL) is 0.12, below the industry average of 0.3, indicating that the token value has yet to fully reflect the ecosystem scale and has long-term growth potential.
V. Competitive Barriers: From 'First-Mover Advantage' to 'Inimitable Ecological Moat'
TreehouseFi's competitive barriers in the DeFi fixed income field are not short-term technical advantages but are built through data accumulation, ecological synergy, and compliance layout, creating a long-term moat that is difficult for competitors to replicate.
First is the 'data barrier'. As an interest rate benchmark, the core value of DOR lies in the accumulation of historical data and the enhancement of market recognition. As of now, DOR has accumulated over 180 days of interest rate data from Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle, forming a complete dataset covering different market environments (bullish, bearish, and extreme conditions). This data not only provides reference for decision-making for new users but also becomes an important basis for institutional users to assess risks. In contrast, new entrants, even if they replicate DOR's mechanism, need at least 6 months to accumulate data and find it difficult to quickly gain industry recognition. This characteristic of 'data becoming more valuable as it accumulates' creates a significant first-mover advantage.
Next is the 'ecological synergy barrier'. TreehouseFi has established deep cooperation with 15 leading protocols including Aave, Pendle, and Centrifuge, forming a full-scenario ecosystem of 'interest rate benchmark - liquid staking - lending - derivatives - RWA'. This synergy is not a simple contractual cooperation but achieves deep binding through API docking, asset mutual recognition, and yield intercommunication— for example, Aave users can directly use tETH as collateral within the platform without switching to TreehouseFi; Pendle's interest rate derivatives directly use DOR data for pricing, and users do not need to obtain additional interest rate information when trading. This 'seamless synergy' ecological experience significantly raises the migration costs for users and partners, making it difficult for competitors to quickly replicate an ecosystem network of similar scale even if they launch similar products.
Finally, there is the 'compliance barrier'. TreehouseFi is currently one of the few DeFi fixed income protocols that have completed compliance filings in multiple regions. In addition to the US MSB and EU MiCA, it has also obtained the 'digital payment token' license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), allowing it to conduct business in major global financial markets. Its compliance system covers not only asset custody and data privacy but also anti-money laundering (AML) and customer due diligence (KYC), meeting the compliance requirements of traditional financial institutions. This multi-regional compliance layout not only clears obstacles for institutional users to enter but also lays the foundation for subsequently connecting more RWA assets (such as sovereign bonds and corporate bonds). New entrants would need to invest at least $20 million and over 12 months to complete a comparable scale of compliance layout, creating an insurmountable compliance barrier.
Conclusion
The core value of TreehouseFi lies in its leap beyond the shallow competition of 'product iteration' in DeFi fixed income, turning to a deep breakthrough of 'system reconstruction'—solving the interest rate benchmark issue through DOR, balancing liquidity and yield through tAssets, ensuring flexible ecosystem expansion through modular architecture, achieving sustainable development through cash flow loops, and ultimately building fixed income infrastructure that connects the crypto ecosystem with traditional finance.
With the continuous entry of institutional users and the rapid growth of RWA scale, TreehouseFi's 'dual anchor system' is expected to become the industry standard for DeFi fixed income: DOR may evolve into the universal interest rate benchmark for the global on-chain fixed income market, while tAssets may become the core asset for cross-chain liquid staking. The 'infrastructure + application layer' ecosystem it builds will promote DeFi fixed income from 'niche innovation' to 'mass allocation', ultimately achieving deep integration with the traditional trillion-level fixed income market. For the industry, TreehouseFi's exploration not only provides a successful product case but also opens up a development path for DeFi fixed income that is 'standardized, institutionalized, and compliant', providing key references for the future scalable growth of the industry.
