In the wave of chasing hot trends in the DeFi sector, TreehouseFi appears somewhat 'stubborn' - since entering the market in 2021, it has never capitalized on AI or GameFi trends, always focusing on the 'stubborn problems' of DeFi fixed income: users want assets with 'stable returns + emergency access', while the industry lacks a 'unified and trustworthy pricing anchor', and traditional low-risk assets are hard to put on-chain. By relying on the tAssets liquid staking system and the decentralized interest rate benchmark DOR, it gradually addresses these issues. As of August 2025, the project’s TVL on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle has surpassed $540 million, with over 64,000 tAssets holders and the first 'on-chain national debt tAsset' completing compliance filing, soon to be opened to ordinary users. Its value lies not in flashy concepts but in 'every function targeting real pain points, every implementation backed by solid evidence'.
tAssets: More than just liquid staking, addressing users' dual pain points of 'returns + emergency access'.
Initially, users viewed tAssets merely as a 'substitute for ETH liquid staking', but now it has clearly transcended that framework - the core issue is solving the contradiction of users wanting to earn stable returns while fearing they can't access their funds in emergencies. Every optimization targets real usage pain points.
Users fear 'inflated and unstable' returns, so tAssets breaks down returns into 'customizable modules': the base layer is the native staking yield of ETH/LSTs (annualized 3.3%-3.7%), guaranteed profit; the middle layer is MEY market efficiency yield, only connecting to top protocols with no security incidents for nearly six months and a TVL over $150 million (such as Aave, Compound), annualized 1.3%-2.3%, with controllable risk; the top layer includes Nuts points (100 points can be exchanged for 1 $TREE) and long-term holding bonuses (0.3% for 90 days +, 0.5% for 180 days +), encouraging users to hold more for greater earnings. Currently, 65% of users choose 'base layer + middle layer' for stability and extra returns, while 25% opt for 'full module' for higher flexibility, and no one is complaining about 'opaque return structures' anymore.
The problem of emergency access is more practical: Previously, users had to wait 2 hours to redeem tAssets, with a 1% fee, which was very passive when they needed cash urgently. Now a '72-hour fast redemption channel' has been added, reducing the fee to 0.3% and the arrival time to 20 minutes. In Q3 2025, there were 14,000 uses of this channel, with users reporting 'finally not having to wait for money to save the day'. Even more considerate is the 'flexible collateral exchange' - users can switch their staked ETH for tETH to stETH without redeeming and re-minting, doing it directly in the background within 5 minutes, avoiding idle asset loss.
Risk control does not indulge in 'paper promises': MEY arbitrage has set a 'daily limit', with a single user able to arbitrage no more than 20% of their tAssets holdings each day to avoid excessive leverage; 5% of each MEY profit goes into a 'risk reserve', which now holds $900,000. Recently, a user lost 3.5% due to fluctuations in a certain protocol's interest rate, and received compensation 1.5 hours after applying. This kind of 'visible safety net' is much more effective than mere assurances of 'safety'.
DOR: Not just interest rate data, filling the gap in the industry's 'pricing + implementation'.
DeFi fixed income has always faced an 'invisible bottleneck': there is no unified interest rate benchmark like the traditional financial SOFR, with rates across protocols floating chaotically, making derivatives difficult to create. The existence of DOR is to fill this gap - it is not just about 'recording interest rates', but aims to become a 'usable pricing anchor', with every step of evolution focused on 'trustworthy, usable, and connecting to traditional finance'.
First addressing the 'trustworthy' issue: DOR's quoting team is not randomly selected, but rather a three-way check of 'community + institutions + third-party'. 500 community quote providers must stake 1,000 TREE, and 3 institutional quote providers (all traditional financial market makers) must stake 500,000 TREE, with two third-party data service providers (providing cash flow data for national debt and wind power projects) involved, with weights distributed as 'community 50% + institutions 30% + third-party 20%'. Daily comparisons are made with the average rates from mainstream market platforms, with deviations over 1% triggering resampling; by Q3 2025, the data deviation rate has never exceeded 0.2%, which is more reliable than many on-chain data tools.
Further addressing the 'usability' issue: Previously, developers had to write a lot of code to call DOR data, but now there's a 'scenario toolkit' available. For fixed-rate wealth management, just copying 3 lines of code can call '7-day/30-day tUSDC rates'; for developing interest rate swaps, they can directly use the 'volatility coefficient template' from the toolkit without calculating risks themselves. Currently, six teams are using this toolkit to develop products, two of which for fixed-rate wealth management just launched and attracted $2.2 million in funding in the first week, with developers reporting 'saved half the development time'.
The key is 'connecting to tradition': DOR is currently working with ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) to modify the data format to meet traditional financial standards. This means that in the future, traditional institutions can create on-chain derivatives without needing to convert data themselves, they can use DOR directly. Currently, one European commodity market maker is testing DOR’s 'green RWA interest rate' for pricing on-chain wind power assets; if this works, DOR will transform from an 'internal DeFi tool' to a 'cross-domain pricing bridge'.
Implementation is not about illusions: from RWA to user retention, every step is backed by solid evidence.
TreehouseFi has never engaged in 'airdrop marketing', but its 30-day user retention rate can reach 70%, with 90-day retention at 36%, significantly higher than the industry average (45%, 15%) - the core is 'paying attention to details, so users can truly derive value'.
New users are not confused: there is a '3-step interactive guide' for selecting asset types, setting yield preferences, and confirming minting, with pop-up prompts at each step explaining 'what risks are involved in MEY arbitrage' and 'how much more can be gained from long-term holding', reducing onboarding time from 10 minutes to 2 minutes. The 'asset dashboard' commonly used by old users allows viewing of tAssets holdings, yield details, cross-chain progress, and RWA reservation status all on one page, eliminating the need for back-and-forth navigation. Now, 92% of users open the app to check this dashboard first.
RWA implementation is 'slow but solid': The first 'on-chain national debt tAsset' did not choose high-risk assets, but selected a 3-month US Treasury bond - the custodian is State Street (one of the largest asset custodian institutions globally), and users can check the custodian account's holdings and interest records in real-time on the official website, with a monthly 'asset report' disclosing the market value fluctuations of the underlying national debt. The threshold has also been lowered to $50, making it accessible to ordinary users; interest can be automatically reinvested, with an additional 0.2% annualized return from compound interest. Currently, there are over 7,500 users reserving it, with a reservation scale close to $10 million.
Technical security is not just 'audited and forgotten': The core contracts have undergone audits from top firms like Trail of Bits and Sigma Prime, and for the RWA module, Deloitte was brought in for compliance audits; adjustments to core parameters require '3/5 multi-signature + 48-hour time lock', ensuring rules cannot be changed suddenly; the DAO insurance fund currently holds $7 million, specifically to address security events and extreme MEY losses. Recently, it simulated '5% short-term volatility in national debt', verifying that the fund could cover 50% of losses - it's not just for show.
Next step: further widen the 'breakthrough' gap.
TreehouseFi's future plans do not shout the slogan of 'industry leader', but rather focus on 'how to solve existing problems more thoroughly':
In Q1 2026, we will launch the 'Cross-chain tAssets Combination' - users will be able to combine assets between Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle, for example, '50% Ethereum tETH + 30% Arbitrum tUSDC + 20% Mantle National Debt tAsset'. The system will automatically calculate cross-chain costs and expected returns, eliminating the need for manual asset juggling.
As for DOR, Q1 aims to complete the ISDA integration for smoother usage by traditional institutions; Q2 will see the release of the 'DOR Interest Rate Index', allowing users to buy an index that can allocate to multiple categories of assets corresponding to DOR benchmarks without having to pick individual items themselves.
RWA needs to go 'local': In Q2, it will launch 'green building RWA tAsset' in the EU, with the underlying asset being rental income from compliant green buildings in Europe; in Q3, it will move to the Asia-Pacific region, initially connecting with high-rated corporate bonds from Japan and Singapore, gradually transferring the 'low-risk asset pool' of traditional fixed income on-chain.
The uniqueness of TreehouseFi lies in its refusal to chase the 'hot trends' of DeFi - while others focus on AI and social aspects, it has been improving the redemption efficiency of tAssets and the data deviation rate of DOR. This 'hard work' results in: user retention (90-day retention at 36%), asset growth (TVL increased by 210 million in six months), and industry usability (six institutions using DOR for pricing). Whether it can become the 'infrastructure' for fixed income in DeFi depends on a few key factors: the usability of cross-chain combinations, the localization of RWA, and whether DOR can be recognized by traditional institutions. But at least for now, every step it takes is grounded in 'solving real problems' rather than 'hype concepts' - which is a rare breakthrough ability in the restless DeFi landscape.
