Buy-the-dip Value Tokens? In-depth Analysis of "Real Yield" DeFi Tokens

We examined the DeFi star projects with “real yield”—Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE)—and posed a core question: as their token prices decline, are their fundamentals still solid, or is the yield itself under pressure?

The answer is mixed:

• ENA generates massive fees, but nearly all of them are recycled as subsidies to maintain TVL, so the protocol’s actual “surplus” is negligible.
• PENDLE’s fundamentals have deteriorated alongside its price. With TVL plunging to around $3.6 billion, the current sell-off isn’t a price/value disconnect, but a rational market response to business contraction.
• HYPE is a money-printing machine, with over $1.2 billion in annualized revenue, almost all used for token buybacks—but its price already reflects “winner” expectations, and it’s currently cutting fees to maintain growth.

Big picture: the market does provide better entry points, but the “real yield” narrative requires careful scrutiny. ENA is in an over-subsidized state, HYPE is cutting take-rates (Take-rates), and PENDLE is experiencing painful user outflows. It’s still too early to declare this “the time to buy any real yield token on the dip.”

The “Real Yield” Framework: What Should Be Measured?

When screening “real yield tokens,” it’s easy to oversimplify and look for:

“Fees going up + token price going down = value entry point.”

On-chain data lets us dig deeper. For each protocol, we ask four key questions:

1. Fees (Fees): Are users still paying, or has activity peaked and rolled over?
2. Protocol Revenue (Revenue): How much of those fees actually accrue to the protocol?
3. Earnings vs. Incentives (Earnings vs. Incentives): How much is left after subtracting token incentives and subsidies?
4. Valuation (Valuation): At current prices, how many times revenue/earnings are we paying?

DefiLlama conveniently lists Fees / Protocol Revenue / Tokenholder Revenue / Incentives for each protocol.

Based on this, we’ll review Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and Hyperliquid (HYPE)—not to pick the “healthiest,” but to show where real price-fundamental disconnects exist, and where “revenue” is being masked by fee cuts or incentives.

Ethena (ENA): High Fees, Slim Profits, Heavy Subsidies

Ethena trades around $0.28–0.29, with a $2.1 billion market cap. Its $7.3 billion total value locked (TVL) generates up to $365 million in annualized fees. However, because the vast majority of fees are recycled as incentives to maintain high yields, the protocol’s actual annualized revenue is only about $600,000, leaving almost zero net earnings for holders. Buying this dip isn’t based on current P/L (P/L) value, but a structural bet that Ethena will eventually normalize subsidies without causing a user exodus.

Fee and Revenue Overview Ethena’s merged USDe contract on Ethereum currently holds about $7.3 billion in TVL. On DefiLlama’s fee dashboard, Ethena appears like a machine:

• Annualized Fees: ≈ $365 million
• Cumulative Fees: ≈ $616 million

But the key line is “protocol revenue”:

• Annualized Revenue: Only about $600,000
• 30-day Revenue: About $49,000

As for incentives? That’s the source of the gap: most fee flow is actually recycled into user yields and incentives, leaving ENA holders almost nothing compared to the headline fee numbers.

Pendle (PENDLE): Rational Selloff

PENDLE trades at about $2.70, down ~64% from its all-time high (ATH) of $7.50. Its circulating market cap is about $450–460 million, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $770 million.

Fee and Revenue Overview Pendle’s core business is tokenizing yields and allowing users to trade PT/YT pairs. According to today’s DefiLlama data:

• Annualized Fees: ≈ $45.7 million
• Annualized Protocol Revenue: ≈ $44.9 million
• Annualized Tokenholder Revenue (vePENDLE): ≈ $35.9 million
• Annualized Incentives: ≈ $10.8 million

While the take-rate remains strong (fees almost entirely become revenue), the absolute figures are shrinking.

TVL Collapse For Pendle, the most critical data point is the rapid shrinkage of asset scale. While total TVL was previously high, recent data shows it has plummeted to about $3.6 billion.

This is a massive contraction in the capital base generating protocol revenue-type fees. This isn’t “price down while business grows” divergence, but a “convergence”: the price crash is because TVL is crashing. This is entirely normal market behavior.

Trap: Cyclical Cashing Out of Yields Pendle relies on monetizing on-chain yields. We’re now seeing the downside of that cycle. As LSD/LRT yields compress and stablecoin arbitrage returns flatten, demand for locking in and trading yields is rapidly shrinking.

The huge drop in TVL shows capital fleeing yield trades. Since revenue is a function of this TVL, a 64% token price drop is rational. With business metrics (TVL) down nearly two-thirds from the high, going long Pendle is not recommended in the current environment. The market has correctly identified that the growth phase is temporarily over.

Hyperliquid (HYPE): A Billion-Dollar Revenue Machine, Now Cutting Fees

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Hyperliquid trades at about $35–36, with a market cap of )hundred–$90 hundred million dollars, and its massive engine generates about $1.21 billion in annualized revenue, with zero incentive emissions. However, the investment thesis is shifting from “pure cash flow” to “aggressive growth,” as the team cuts taker fees by up to 90% in new markets to capture long-tail market dominance. As a result, HYPE is priced as a winner (about 8–10x P/S), and future returns will depend on whether these fee cuts can successfully drive massive volume expansion.

Hyperliquid is now the largest perpetual exchange by on-chain metrics:

• Annualized Fees: ≈ $1.34 billion
• Annualized Revenue: ≈ $1.21 billion
• Annualized Holder Revenue: ≈ $1.20 billion
• Annualized Incentives: $0 (no airdrop confirmed yet)

Our take:

• The revenue is real
• There are no obvious incentive emissions eroding the P&L—the main focus for users is using the product, not just farming airdrops.
• Nearly all revenue is set aside for HYPE buybacks and burns via the aid fund.

According to DefiLlama’s current data, compared to its roughly $100 hundred–(hundred million dollar market cap, that’s about 8–10x P/S—not crazy for a fast-growing exchange, but not “fire sale” undervalued either.

New Growth Areas

The key nuance this cycle: Hyperliquid is no longer just “ramp up revenues and buy back.” It’s now actively:

• Opening permissionless markets via HIP-3, where market deployers can share fee revenue; and
• For new HIP-3 markets, cutting taker fees by up to ~90% to bootstrap volume in long-tail perps (stocks, niche assets, etc.). The HIP-3 public post and trading docs outline this “growth mode” fee structure.

) Summary: What’s Mispriced?

After reviewing the facts, we have some preliminary conclusions:

1. “Real Yield” Alone Isn’t Enough ENA proves that fees ≠ earnings. The protocol shows hundreds of millions in annualized fees, but after paying TVL costs and user yields, almost nothing is left for tokenholders. HYPE shows that revenue is endogenous: when teams cut fees to chase market share, revenue and its multiple move with those decisions, not just user demand. Any “bottom-fishing” screen that stops at “fees up” will systematically misjudge these projects.

2. PENDLE Is a “Value Trap,” Not a Value Buy The data show a clear fundamental collapse.

• TVL has crashed to about $3.6 billion.
• Revenue is shrinking alongside the asset base.
• The token is down sharply, but so is core business usage. This is not mispricing; it’s repricing. The market is rightly discounting the token, given the protocol is facing severe demand contraction.

3. Even Winners Are Under Pressure The biggest timing takeaway:

• HYPE is cutting fees to grow new markets
• ENA is maintaining extremely high subsidy levels to keep USDe attractive Both signals show that even leading protocols are feeling the pressure in this environment. If the leaders are adjusting take rates and incentives, and former favorites like Pendle are facing mass capital flight, then we’re likely not in a market where you can blindly buy any token with fee revenue.

$90 Conclusion

Yes, there are divergences, but not all are bullish. PENDLE looks like a project undergoing rapid business contraction, validating the bearish price action. HYPE and ENA are still holding up well revenue-wise—but their own decisions (fee cuts, subsidies) show that the environment remains fragile.