Pendle has deprecated vePENDLE due to low adoption and promoted sPENDLE to simplify governance

Pendle announced on Monday that it will replace vePENDLE with a new liquidity-staking token, sPENDLE, as the primary governance token to address significant barriers to broader adoption.

Issues with vePENDLE include: long lock-up periods that cannot be redeemed early, lack of cross-platform usability (non-transferable), and overly complex governance (requiring weekly voting participation). Despite generating over $37 million in revenue in 2025, the complex voting mechanism led to rewards being concentrated among a few specialized users.

In contrast, sPENDLE will improve with a 14-day withdrawal period (or an instant withdrawal with a 5% fee), usability across multiple DeFi platforms for re-staking and other purposes, and simplified governance (rewards for voting on key proposals only, PPP).

The official announcement disclosed that the locking of vePENDLE will be paused on January 29, and the transition will be completed.