🔥The other day I introduced deterministic fixed rates and Alpha’s no-liquidation design. Today I want to clarify the underlying mechanics a bit more, and compare it side by side with Aave V3.
For TermMax fixed rates to run, it mainly relies on three tokens: FT, XT, and GT.
FT (Fixed-rate Token) is essentially like a zero-coupon bond. Lenders buy FT at a discount, and at maturity they redeem the corresponding debt token 1:1. The difference between the purchase price and the par value is the fixed return. The interest rate is determined at the moment of purchase and won’t change afterward.
XT is the other side paired with FT. In the protocol, there’s a basic relationship: 1 FT + 1 XT = 1 debt token. After a borrower posts collateral, they receive XT. Then they can sell XT to get liquidity immediately, while locking in the borrowing cost.
GT (Gearing Token) packages a leveraged position into an NFT. Traditional loop lending requires repeated steps—depositing collateral, borrowing, and redepositing. GT bundles these actions together, so users can achieve the target leverage in one click.
Compared with Aave V3, the difference is very clear.
Aave V3 is mainly floating-rate: the interest rate changes in real time with the utilization rate of capital. There was also Stable Rate in the past, but that “stable rate” could still be readjusted by the protocol under certain conditions—it wasn’t truly locked for the whole time, and it was basically phased out later. Today, Aave’s main model is still the variable-rate approach, with no fixed maturity date.
TermMax, on the other hand, is truly fixed rate + fixed term. The rate is locked in at the moment you enter, and it stays locked until the maturity date. It doesn’t rely on an algorithm adjusting rates in the background; instead, the price naturally forms through the trading of FT and XT.
In simple terms: Aave is better for people who want flexibility to enter and exit and can tolerate interest-rate fluctuations. TermMax is better for people who want to know their costs and returns ahead of time and don’t want midstream rate changes to affect them.
After reading it myself, my biggest takeaway is that it turns “interest rate trading” into tradable tokens—not just a number running in the protocol backend. Once you understand this logic, it becomes much clearer when you look at Alpha and fixed-term lending.
TGE is in just a few days. The product has already got this mechanism up and running, so I’m a bit excited.
#termmax @TermMax
For TermMax fixed rates to run, it mainly relies on three tokens: FT, XT, and GT.
FT (Fixed-rate Token) is essentially like a zero-coupon bond. Lenders buy FT at a discount, and at maturity they redeem the corresponding debt token 1:1. The difference between the purchase price and the par value is the fixed return. The interest rate is determined at the moment of purchase and won’t change afterward.
XT is the other side paired with FT. In the protocol, there’s a basic relationship: 1 FT + 1 XT = 1 debt token. After a borrower posts collateral, they receive XT. Then they can sell XT to get liquidity immediately, while locking in the borrowing cost.
GT (Gearing Token) packages a leveraged position into an NFT. Traditional loop lending requires repeated steps—depositing collateral, borrowing, and redepositing. GT bundles these actions together, so users can achieve the target leverage in one click.
Compared with Aave V3, the difference is very clear.
Aave V3 is mainly floating-rate: the interest rate changes in real time with the utilization rate of capital. There was also Stable Rate in the past, but that “stable rate” could still be readjusted by the protocol under certain conditions—it wasn’t truly locked for the whole time, and it was basically phased out later. Today, Aave’s main model is still the variable-rate approach, with no fixed maturity date.
TermMax, on the other hand, is truly fixed rate + fixed term. The rate is locked in at the moment you enter, and it stays locked until the maturity date. It doesn’t rely on an algorithm adjusting rates in the background; instead, the price naturally forms through the trading of FT and XT.
In simple terms: Aave is better for people who want flexibility to enter and exit and can tolerate interest-rate fluctuations. TermMax is better for people who want to know their costs and returns ahead of time and don’t want midstream rate changes to affect them.
After reading it myself, my biggest takeaway is that it turns “interest rate trading” into tradable tokens—not just a number running in the protocol backend. Once you understand this logic, it becomes much clearer when you look at Alpha and fixed-term lending.
TGE is in just a few days. The product has already got this mechanism up and running, so I’m a bit excited.
#termmax @TermMax
