In the trend of pursuing 'quick and fast' hotspots in the DeFi track, TreehouseFi stands out for its exceptional 'patience' - since its launch in 2021, it has not capitalized on AI or social finance traffic but has consistently tackled the three core pain points of DeFi fixed income: users want 'stable earnings but fear locking up funds', the industry lacks a 'unified and trustworthy interest rate anchor', and traditional low-risk assets are hard to bring on-chain. With the 'liquid staking system' of tAssets and the 'decentralized interest rate benchmark' of DOR as two practical measures, it has gradually transformed these pain points from 'conceptual solutions' into 'usable implementations'. As of August 2025, the project’s TVL on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle has exceeded $550 million, with over 65,000 tAssets holders, and the first 'on-chain government bond tAsset' has completed its final round of user testing and is about to open fully. Its value lies not in flashy rhetoric but in 'every function providing tangible benefits to users, with every implementation having verifiable details'.
tAssets: Not playing the 'high-yield gimmick', meeting users' real needs for 'stable earnings + emergencies'
When tAssets was first launched, many thought it was just 'another liquid staking token', but it has long surpassed that framework - the core is focused on the user's contradiction of 'wanting to earn steady money while fearing the inability to withdraw money in an emergency', with each optimization addressing practical pain points.
Users are most afraid of 'inflated yields and ambiguous structures'; tAssets breaks down yields into 'optional modules': the base layer is the native staking yield of ETH/LSTs (annualized 3.4%-3.8%), which is 'guaranteed'; the middle layer is MEY market efficiency yield, but it only connects to top protocols with no security incidents for nearly 6 months and a TVL over $180 million (such as Aave and Compound), with an annualized rate of 1.4%-2.4%, which is controllable risk; the top layer consists of Nuts points (100 points can be exchanged for 1 $TREE) and long-term holding bonuses (0.3% for holding over 90 days, 0.6% for holding over 180 days); to earn more, hold more. Currently, 67% of users choose 'base layer + middle layer' for stability and extra earnings, 23% choose 'all modules' for flexibility, and the remaining 10% only keep the base layer, completely free from wealth management risks.
Emergency problems are solved practically: previously, users had to wait 2 hours to redeem tAssets, with a 1% fee, and could only wait anxiously when they needed money urgently. Now, a new '72-hour quick redemption channel' has been added, with the fee reduced to 0.2% and the arrival time shortened to 15 minutes. In Q3 2025, 15,000 users used this channel, and user feedback was 'finally not losing fees for emergencies'. Even more considerate is the 'flexible switching of collateral' - after users stake ETH into tETH, if they want to exchange it for stETH, they don’t need to redeem and re-mint; a click in the background can complete the switch in 3 minutes, avoiding idle asset losses.
Risk control will also not engage in 'paper promises': MEY arbitrage has set a 'daily limit', with a single user's arbitrage amount not exceeding 15% of their tAssets holdings, to avoid excessive leverage; 5% of each MEY yield is drawn into a 'risk reserve', with $950,000 currently in the pool. Recently, a user lost 3.8% due to short-term interest rate fluctuations in a protocol and received compensation for the difference within an hour of application. This kind of 'visible and usable' safety net is much more reliable than simply shouting 'safety first'.
DOR: No 'data decoration', filling the industry's 'pricing + implementation' gap
DeFi fixed income has always had an 'invisible ceiling': there is no unified interest rate benchmark like SOFR in traditional finance, and the interest rate differences among various protocols can reach 3%, making it difficult to do fixed-rate loans and interest rate swaps. The existence of DOR fills this gap - it is not just 'recording interest rates', but aims to become a 'usable pricing anchor', with each step of evolution centered around 'trustworthy, usable, and connecting to traditional finance'.
First solve the fundamental issue of 'trust': DOR's quoting team is not randomly assembled but is a three-fold check of 'community + institutions + third parties'. 500 community quoters must stake 1,000 TREE, 3 institutional quoters (all market makers with traditional finance backgrounds) must stake 500,000 TREE, and two third-party data service providers (providing cash flow data for government bonds and wind power projects) have been included, with weights distributed as 'community 50% + institution 30% + third-party 20%'. Rates are compared daily with the average rates on mainstream market platforms, and if the deviation exceeds 1%, a new sampling is done. In Q3 2025, the data deviation rate has never exceeded 0.2%, which is much more trustworthy than many on-chain data tools.
Further solve the 'usability' implementation issue: previously, developers had to write dozens of lines of code to call DOR data, now a 'scenario toolkit' is available. For those doing fixed-rate wealth management, they can copy 3 lines of code to call '7-day/30-day tUSDC interest rates'; those developing interest rate swaps can directly use the 'volatility coefficient template' from the toolkit without calculating risks themselves. Currently, 7 teams are using this toolkit to develop products, with 2 fixed-rate wealth management products raising 2.5 million dollars in the first week after launch; developers say 'at least two-thirds of development time has been saved'.
The key breakthrough is 'connecting to traditional finance': DOR is currently finalizing data format integration with ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) to convert DOR data into formats that meet traditional financial standards. This means that in the future, traditional institutions won't have to convert data themselves when doing on-chain derivatives; they can use DOR directly. Currently, one European commodity market maker is testing using DOR's 'green RWA interest rate' for pricing on-chain wind power assets. If this step is successful, DOR will transform from an 'internal DeFi tool' into a 'small bridge for cross-domain pricing'.
Implementation is not about playing tricks: from user retention to RWA, each step has 'verifiable evidence'
TreehouseFi has never done 'airdrop marketing', but the 30-day user retention rate can reach 71% and the 90-day retention 37%, significantly higher than the industry average (45%, 15%) - the key is 'no empty promises, every detail resonates with users'.
New users won't feel lost: there is a '3-step interactive guide' to select asset types, set income preferences, and confirm minting, with pop-up prompts for 'MEY arbitrage risk points' and 'specific benefits of long-term holding' at each step, reducing the onboarding time from 10 minutes to 1.5 minutes. The 'asset dashboard' commonly used by old users allows them to see tAssets holdings, income details, cross-chain progress, and RWA appointment status on one page, without jumping back and forth; now 93% of users check this dashboard when they open the app.
The implementation of RWA is 'slow but solid': the first 'on-chain government bond tAsset' did not choose high-risk assets but selected US 3-month government bonds - the custodian is State Street (one of the largest asset custodians globally), and users can check the custody account's holdings and interest records in real-time on the official website, with monthly 'asset reports' disclosing the market value fluctuations of underlying government bonds and interest calculation logic. The threshold has also been reduced to $50, allowing ordinary users to purchase; interest supports 'automatic reinvestment', with an additional 0.2% annualized gain from compound interest; now there are over 7,800 users scheduled for purchase, with a booking scale exceeding $11 million.
Technical security is not 'out of sight after auditing': in addition to audits from top institutions like Trail of Bits and Sigma Prime, an additional compliance audit for the RWA module was conducted by Deloitte; core parameter adjustments must go through '3/5 multi-signature + 48-hour time lock', and no one can suddenly change the rules; the DAO insurance fund currently has $7.2 million, specifically for addressing security incidents and extreme MEY losses. Recently, a simulation of 'short-term fluctuations in government bonds by 5%' validated that the fund can cover up to 50% of losses, not just for show.
Next step: expand the 'implementation channels' further
TreehouseFi's future plans do not shout the slogan of 'becoming the industry leader', but instead focus on 'how to solve existing problems more thoroughly':
In Q1 2026, we will launch a 'cross-chain tAssets portfolio' - users can create custom combinations between Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Mantle, such as '50% Ethereum tETH + 30% Arbitrum tUSDC + 20% Mantle government bond tAsset', the system will automatically calculate cross-chain costs and expected returns, eliminating the need for manual asset transfers across multiple chains.
On the DOR side, we aim to complete the formal integration with ISDA in Q1 to make it smoother for traditional institutions to use; in Q2, we will release the 'DOR interest rate index', allowing users to buy one index to allocate multiple types of assets corresponding to DOR benchmarks without having to choose individual varieties.
RWA will take the path of 'regional implementation': in Q2, we will promote 'green building RWA tAsset' in the EU, with the underlying being rental income from compliant green buildings in Europe; in Q3, we will move to the Asia-Pacific region, initially connecting with high-rated corporate bonds from Japan and Singapore, gradually bringing traditional low-risk asset pools on-chain.
What makes TreehouseFi special is that it hasn't followed the 'hot trends' of DeFi - while others chase AI and gaming, it has focused on improving the redemption efficiency of tAssets and the data deviation rate of DOR. The result of this 'hard work' is: users are retained (90-day retention 37%), assets have increased (TVL grew by 220 million in six months), and the industry can use it (7 institutions use DOR for pricing). Whether it can become the 'infrastructure' for fixed income in DeFi in the future depends on several key issues: whether the cross-chain portfolio is usable, whether RWA regionalization can be implemented, and whether DOR can truly be recognized by traditional institutions. But at least for now, every step it takes is focused on 'solving real problems' instead of 'hype concepts' - this itself is a rare grounding force in the impatient DeFi track.
