This morning I went through a self-custody (no private keys) wallet on Binance, connected to the TermMax BNB chain web interface. I didn’t rush to buy—I spent 40 minutes figuring out this FT thing first. After all, among the top 500 Chinese-language posts for the past three days, FT is the most frequently appearing word. If you don’t understand it, don’t write.
FT stands for Fixed-Term Token—Chinese crypto circles call it “fixed-term token,” but I think calling it “zero-coupon bond bits” is more straightforward. Suppose TermMax launches a 90-day USDC fixed market: 1 FT can be redeemed for 1 USDC at maturity. But since there are 90 days left until maturity, the market sells it at an 8.1% annualized discount. This morning you pay 0.9801 USDC to buy 1 FT. Hold it for 90 days, and at maturity it automatically swaps back 1:1 into 1 USDC. The 0.0199 U you earn in the middle is the fixed interest—it doesn’t bounce around based on Aave utilization.
The point I couldn’t get past at first was: why is FT a “discount buy” instead of “saving that earns interest”? Then it clicked—TermMax isn’t a bank. There’s no account where you deposit 100 and it returns 102. Instead, it takes “the 100 that the borrower will have to repay in the future,” mints it into FT upfront, and sells that to the lender. What the borrower receives is the principal of 98.01 (the difference is the interest paid). The lender receives FT and waits until maturity to redeem. That’s why the FT price is always < 1, and the closer it gets to maturity, the more it climbs back to 1. This upward climb line is your earnings curve.
This morning I actually snagged a screenshot of the 90-day FT–USDC order book: the buy price is 0.9801 and the sell price is 0.9803, implying an annualized 8.1%. Next to it, XT is quoted at 0.0012, which is time value residue. I put in 200 U to try to buy 204.06 FT (after the spread). The page immediately showed: “Redeem 204.06 USDC on 2026-11-15.” That was the moment I truly understood—FT holders don’t care how XT gets traded. They only care about the maturity date and whether the other side’s GT blows up.
I also jotted down three newbie confusions that are easy to mix up: ① FT is not the same as Pendle PT. PT is backed by YT with yield separation; FT is priced on a two-sided basis against GT lending. ② Selling FT mid-way involves slippage—don’t treat it like you can withdraw anytime like a money-market fund. ③ Before buying FT, check who the curator is—Keyrock and Origami with the same term can differ in discount by 0.0007.
Once you get through FT, tomorrow on Day 2 I’ll go touch the XT decay line. When you first saw the FT discount, did you also hesitate with “why is it less than 1”?
@TermMax #TermMax
FT stands for Fixed-Term Token—Chinese crypto circles call it “fixed-term token,” but I think calling it “zero-coupon bond bits” is more straightforward. Suppose TermMax launches a 90-day USDC fixed market: 1 FT can be redeemed for 1 USDC at maturity. But since there are 90 days left until maturity, the market sells it at an 8.1% annualized discount. This morning you pay 0.9801 USDC to buy 1 FT. Hold it for 90 days, and at maturity it automatically swaps back 1:1 into 1 USDC. The 0.0199 U you earn in the middle is the fixed interest—it doesn’t bounce around based on Aave utilization.
The point I couldn’t get past at first was: why is FT a “discount buy” instead of “saving that earns interest”? Then it clicked—TermMax isn’t a bank. There’s no account where you deposit 100 and it returns 102. Instead, it takes “the 100 that the borrower will have to repay in the future,” mints it into FT upfront, and sells that to the lender. What the borrower receives is the principal of 98.01 (the difference is the interest paid). The lender receives FT and waits until maturity to redeem. That’s why the FT price is always < 1, and the closer it gets to maturity, the more it climbs back to 1. This upward climb line is your earnings curve.
This morning I actually snagged a screenshot of the 90-day FT–USDC order book: the buy price is 0.9801 and the sell price is 0.9803, implying an annualized 8.1%. Next to it, XT is quoted at 0.0012, which is time value residue. I put in 200 U to try to buy 204.06 FT (after the spread). The page immediately showed: “Redeem 204.06 USDC on 2026-11-15.” That was the moment I truly understood—FT holders don’t care how XT gets traded. They only care about the maturity date and whether the other side’s GT blows up.
I also jotted down three newbie confusions that are easy to mix up: ① FT is not the same as Pendle PT. PT is backed by YT with yield separation; FT is priced on a two-sided basis against GT lending. ② Selling FT mid-way involves slippage—don’t treat it like you can withdraw anytime like a money-market fund. ③ Before buying FT, check who the curator is—Keyrock and Origami with the same term can differ in discount by 0.0007.
Once you get through FT, tomorrow on Day 2 I’ll go touch the XT decay line. When you first saw the FT discount, did you also hesitate with “why is it less than 1”?
@TermMax #TermMax