RWAs: Who Really Captures Value in the Tokenization Stack?
Maple Finance (SYRUP), Ondo, Aave, Pendle
Alpha Recap #3: Terminal Finance’s Promise, Ether.fi’s Buyback, and Maple’s Strategic Pivot
Published onUpdated on
In this week’s Alpha Recap, we review the key insights from the crypto market: major news, yield and airdrop strategies, key developments, and quick analyses to help you go beyond the noise.
The Alpha Recap highlights the most important crypto Alphas of the week. Every Friday, we bring you a concise summary of the most valuable insights from our Alpha Feed.
Exclusive to OAK Premium members, the Alpha Feed delivers deep insights, yield and airdrop strategies, and key market intelligence. In other words, what defines OAK Research: filtered, high-value content that cuts through the noise.
Terminal Finance: When Native Yield Becomes a Liquidity Component
This week, we explored Terminal Finance, a DEX in development aiming to become the default liquidity layer for yield-bearing stablecoins on Converge, the blockchain built by Ethena and Securitize.
We’re not talking about just any stablecoins here, but USDe and USDtb, Ethena’s two flagship assets.
Terminal Finance’s premise is simple: DEXs today are structurally unfit for trading yield-bearing stablecoins because of their native yield component, which makes these assets largely illiquid across most platforms.
Despite massive retail adoption, sUSDe and USDe remain inefficient for institutional-scale operations, especially due to Ethena’s 7-day unbonding window for sUSDe withdrawals.
Leveraging Converge’s compliance-friendly framework, Terminal Finance aims to remove these barriers. Its core innovation lies in a mechanism called “Yield Skimming”, which reinvests the underlying yield generated by supported stablecoins back into liquidity pools.
This creates a self-reinforcing cycle where the DEX’s yield is continuously reinjected into the protocol, deepening liquidity and improving capital efficiency for institutional users.
Investor interest already reflects this potential - Terminal Finance has surpassed $280 million in pre-deposits.
Ether.fi Seeks to Revitalize Its Buyback - But Is It the Right Move?
Ether.fi has proposed a new governance plan to revamp its buyback program with a $50 million budget.
Key details from the proposal:
- Purchases will be made by the Ether.fi Foundation on secondary markets
- Buybacks will occur when ETHFI trades below $3 (currently $0.92)
- The total program budget is capped at $50 million
- The share of Ether.fi’s revenue allocated to buybacks will be flexible
- The new program will begin once approved by the DAO
On paper, this mechanism acts as a bullish catalyst for ETHFI, especially since a weekly revenue-based buyback program is already in place.
However, there are downward pressures that cannot be ignored - notably from ongoing token unlocks and staking rewards paid in ETHFI, both of which increase sell pressure.
As we explained in our dedicated Alpha, the proposal is a positive signal but doesn’t solve the token’s deeper structural issues, particularly in balancing revenue growth with token distribution dynamics.
Maple Unveils a Long-Term Strategy - Will SYRUP Benefit?
Another major governance proposal this week came from Maple. As detailed in our latest quarterly report, the on-chain asset manager is thriving: AUM up 66% in Q3, active loans up 45%, and revenue up 41.5%.
After a year of aggressive expansion across Solana, Plasma, Arbitrum, and more, Maple now looks to align its token model with its long-term vision.
The proposal outlines three major changes:
- Launch of the Syrup Strategic Fund (SSF)
- Termination of the staking rewards program for SYRUP-2.50% holders
- Extension of governance voting rights to unstaked SYRUP holders
Maple’s goal is clear: to distribute value more broadly across all SYRUP holders, not just stakers.
While this may seem counterintuitive at first, it makes sense - only 40% of SYRUP is currently staked, and the existing staking reward mechanism contributes to downward price pressure (similar to Ether.fi’s issue).
The Syrup Strategic Fund (SSF) aims to realign the token’s value with Maple’s growth while building a treasury designed for long-term sustainability.
We broke down the full mechanics and implications of this governance shift in a dedicated Alpha - the vote’s outcome will be determined today.
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