Since entering the DeFi fixed income field in 2021, TreehouseFi has consistently aimed to "build a resilient and practical on-chain fixed income infrastructure". Through the continuous iteration of the tAssets liquid staking system and the DOR decentralized interest rate benchmark, it gradually breaks the current state of "separation between cryptocurrency and traditional fixed income markets". As of August 2025, the project has achieved stable operation across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle, serving over 60,000 users, with total locked value (TVL) exceeding $500 million. The "on-chain treasury bond tAsset" has completed custody and compliance filing and is about to officially launch. Its performance in "infrastructure risk resistance", "ecological landing industry value", and "cross-domain asset linkage effectiveness" provides a reusable paradigm of "technology - implementation - value" for the DeFi fixed income sector.
I. Core Competence: "Resilience iteration" and "functional depth" of infrastructure
The core competitiveness of TreehouseFi lies not in static technology, but in the ability of tAssets and DOR to dynamically evolve with market demands and risk changes, continuously deepening in "risk control", "industry adaptation", and "user experience", building a resilient infrastructure barrier.
1. tAssets: From "Yield Optimization" to "Risk-Yield Balance"
Early tAssets attracted users through "multi-source income stacking", and have now upgraded to a refined system of "risk hedging + yield customization", more suited to market volatility:
• Dynamic risk hedging mechanism: A new "MEY arbitrage risk reserve" has been added, extracting 5% from each MEY profit to inject into the reserve (current scale $800,000). If a single user suffers more than a 3% loss in a single MEY arbitrage, they can receive the difference from the reserve (up to $5,000). In Q3 2025, compensation was triggered 3 times, with user satisfaction reaching 95%; it also supports "flexible replacement of tAssets collateral", allowing users to replace ETH collateral with stETH without redeeming the original tAssets, reducing asset switching costs;
• Yield scenario customization: Designing exclusive plans for different user scenarios—"salary wealth management scenario" supports "automatically minting tAssets on a fixed date each month", "emergency fund scenario" provides a "72-hour rapid redemption channel" (redemption fee 0.5%, lower than the conventional 1%), and "long-term allocation scenario" unlocks an "extra yield bonus of 0.4% for holding periods over 180 days". Currently, users in the "long-term allocation scenario" account for 35%, an increase of 10 percentage points from Q2;
• Cross-chain efficiency upgrade: Optimized the underlying cross-chain protocol, reducing the cross-chain gas fee between Ethereum and Arbitrum to 0.005 ETH per transaction (40% lower than the industry average), and shortening the cross-chain confirmation time from 5 minutes to 3 minutes, while supporting "cross-chain asset pre-arrival" (users can view incoming assets on the target chain after initiating a cross-chain transfer, reducing anxiety).
2. DOR: From "Interest Rate Benchmark" to "Cross-Domain Asset Pricing Infrastructure"
DOR has expanded from a "single cryptocurrency asset interest rate" to a "multi-benchmark covering both crypto and traditional assets", and has reinforced its "infrastructure attributes" in data reliability and industry application:
• Multi-asset benchmark coverage expansion: In Q3 2025, a new "gold RWA interest rate benchmark" will be added (based on the rental yield of the cooperating gold custody institution, data synchronized in real-time), forming a coverage loop with the previous "cross-chain tUSDC interest rate benchmark" and "green RWA interest rate benchmark" to cover "crypto + physical + green assets"; at the same time, optimizing the interest rate calculation model by introducing a "market sentiment coefficient" (based on on-chain capital inflow and outflow data), making DOR interest rates more aligned with actual market supply and demand;
• Improvement of data authority and usability: Introduced 3 globally renowned financial data service providers (providing treasury bond and commodity yield data), data weight adjusted to "community bidders 40% + institutional bidders 30% + third-party data 30%"; launched "DOR data visualization tools", allowing developers to generate interest rate curve charts (such as 7-day/30-day/90-day TESR curves) with one click. Currently, 10 developer teams have used this tool to develop derivative demonstration pages, reducing application thresholds;
• Substantial industry cooperation: Collaborated with two traditional commodity trading platforms to use DOR's "gold RWA interest rate benchmark" for "on-chain gold ETF pricing". The first "gold tAsset ETF" based on this benchmark has entered the testing phase, expected to go live in Q1 2026, further expanding DOR's industry application scenarios.
II. Ecological Landing: From "User Growth" to "Industry Value Retention"
The ecological development of TreehouseFi does not rely on "short-term traffic subsidies" but focuses on "user value delivery", "institutional business closure", and "RWA practical effectiveness", achieving long-term retention through concrete results and avoiding "hollow growth".
1. Users and Assets: The "value logic" of high-quality retention
The core of user growth and asset retention for the project lies in "transparent returns + low thresholds + scenario adaptability", with the user structure showing "long-term and diversified" characteristics:
• Transparent and traceable yields: Users can view the source and calculation logic of each profit in the "Profit Details" section—such as "basic staking yield (0.012 ETH, from Ethereum staking node XX, annualized 3.2%), MEY arbitrage yield (0.0015 ETH, from Aave-USDT lending rate of 4.5% and Compound-USDT borrowing rate of 4.1% spread), Nuts points (50, current exchange rate 100 Nuts = 1 $TREE)", with no ambiguous terms, and users rated the clarity of yields at 4.8/5;
• User stratification and scenario coverage: Introduced a "small tAssets package starting at $10" for micro and small users, and provided "bulk operation API" for corporate users (supporting tAssets management of over 50 ETH in a single operation). Currently, micro and small users account for 62%, corporate users 11%, and individual large users 27%, covering all level demands;
• Retention data leads the industry: 30-day user retention rate 66%, 90-day retention rate 32%, both higher than the average levels of DeFi projects (45%, 15%); average holding period per user is 130 days, doubling the industry average of 60 days, indicating users' recognition of the project's long-term value.
2. Institutional Cooperation and RWA: From "Intent" to "Business Closure"
The project's institutional cooperation and RWA implementation have clear business outcomes, rather than remaining at the "framework agreement" level, forming value circulation between "crypto and traditional".
• Deepening institutional user business: Through Aave Prime institutional market, tETH has become a core collateral asset for 3 hedge funds and 2 family offices, with institutional users borrowing stablecoins against tETH exceeding $35 million, funds used for "on-chain treasury bond tAsset allocation" and "cryptocurrency market making", forming a closed loop of "tAssets staking - stablecoin borrowing - asset reallocation";
• RWA landing details clarified: The "on-chain treasury bond tAsset" has completed underlying asset custody (State Street) and compliance filing (U.S. SEC Regulation D/S), with a minimum investment amount of $100. Interest is paid monthly in USDC (arrival time ≤ 2 hours), with over 6,000 users currently reserving, totaling over $7 million in reservations. User feedback during the pre-launch testing phase has reached a satisfaction rate of 94%;
• Targeted investment of ecological funds: 10% of the ecological fund (approximately 10 million $TREE tokens, equivalent to $35 million), 75% is used for "RWA ecological construction" (including custody fee subsidies, compliance costs), and 25% is used for "DOR developer support", having funded 6 derivatives development teams, one of which, a "DOR-based interest rate swap product", is expected to launch by the end of 2025.
III. Risks and Prospects: An objective view of boundaries and growth potential
TreehouseFi has differentiating advantages in the sector, but also needs to face challenges such as industry competition and compliance regulation. Its long-term potential depends on the synergy of "implementation progress" and "industry adaptability".
1. Core Advantage: Hard-to-replicate "cross-domain synergy and resource barriers"
• Ecological synergy barriers: "tAssets (user side) + DOR (industry side) + RWA (asset side)" form a triple synergy—tAssets user growth provides real data for DOR, DOR prices for RWA, and RWA provides new scenarios for tAssets users. This closed loop cannot be replicated by single-function projects (such as those solely focusing on liquid staking);
• Cross-domain resource advantages: MassMutual Ventures (traditional financial venture capital) introduced in Series A provides RWA custody and institutional channels. After the Binance HODLer airdrop, there were 15,000 new users, with 35% converting into tAssets holders, continuously strengthening resource barriers;
• Security resilience: The protocol has been audited by four top institutions, adding a "smart contract anomaly monitoring system" and a "multi-signature emergency mechanism". No security incidents occurred in Q3 2025, and the DAO insurance fund has reached $5.5 million, covering potential risks.
2. Potential Challenges and Response Strategies
• User education costs: The DOR mechanism is relatively complex, with only 16% of users currently participating in bidding. A one-click participation feature for DOR is planned to be launched in Q4 2025 (minimum stake of 100 $TREE tokens, system automatically completes bidding), along with a tutorial on the connection between DOR and wealth management to lower the understanding threshold.
• RWA compliance differences: Different regulatory requirements in different regions, adopting "regional landing"—first launching the treasury bond tAsset in the U.S., with plans to advance to the EU market in Q1 2026 (a compliance team of 6 has been formed), to avoid global delays;
• Industry competition: Aave plans to launch an interest rate benchmark in 2026, with the strategy focusing on "cross-domain assets"—strengthening DOR's benchmark position in gold and green RWA, deepening the synergy between tAssets and RWA (e.g., prioritizing RWA allocation for holdings over 90 days), forming differentiation.
Summary and Future Outlook
TreehouseFi has built a unique advantage in the DeFi fixed income sector through "infrastructure resilience iteration", "ecological landing effectiveness", and "cross-domain resource integration". Its core value is to connect the cryptocurrency and traditional fixed income markets, providing solutions that are "risk-controllable and yield-transparent". Despite facing user education and compliance challenges in the short term, the project's dynamic adjustment capability is clear, with long-term potential.
Future Outlook:
• Short-term (Q4 2025 - Q1 2026): After the launch of the treasury bond tAsset, it is expected to attract 25,000 to 30,000 new users, with TVL exceeding $800 million, and the price of $TREE may rise to $0.60 - $0.70, driven by the capital influx from RWA;
• Mid-term (2026): The multi-asset DOR benchmark will land, more than 7 derivative products will be launched, institutional users will account for 22%, RWA scale will exceed $500 million, and the price of $TREE is expected to reach $1.00 - $1.20, relying on the enhancement of DOR industry penetration;
• Long-term (2027): If the DeFi fixed income sector reaches a scale of $70 billion, the project is expected to capture 15%-20% market share, with TVL exceeding $10 billion, becoming a core infrastructure for cross-domain fixed income. Value growth needs to continuously focus on RWA expansion and deepening DOR applications.@Treehouse Official #Treehouse $TREE
