hBTC is live on Pendle. That gives BTC Basis+ a maturity date and two new ways to hold it. PT is hBTC at a fixed rate until a date. YT is only the yield hBTC earns until that date.
What yield tokenization is
Pendle is a yield-trading protocol. It takes a yield-bearing token and splits it into two tokens that exist until a maturity date. The principal token, PT, is the position without its yield. The yield token, YT, is the yield without the position.
hBTC does two things at once. It holds your position in the strategy, and it earns what the strategy earns. Pendle separates the two. PT is the position, and it pays you a fixed rate for giving up the yield until maturity. YT is the yield, and it pays you whatever hBTC earns until maturity.
The two tokens
PT. Because the yield has been taken out, PT costs less than hBTC. Hold it to maturity and it is redeemed at full value, paid in hBTC. The gap between what you paid and full value is your fixed rate. PT earns none of the yield along the way. All of it goes to YT.
YT. Collects all the yield one hBTC earns until maturity, and you can claim it as you go. It costs a fraction of one hBTC and collects the yield of one whole hBTC. It also expires. Its value trends toward zero as maturity approaches and reaches zero on the day. Whatever yield it collected before then stays claimed.
Both tokens trade before maturity at whatever price the market sets. The price you pay for PT sets your rate. Pendle calls it the implied APY. Buy PT, hold it to maturity, and that is the rate you get.
How the market sets the rate
More people buying YT pushes the rate up. More people buying PT pushes it down. The rate on the market page is where the two sides meet on the day you look.
Implied APY is the fixed rate. Underlying APY is what hBTC itself has been earning lately, as a seven-day average. If you think hBTC will earn more than the fixed rate over the period, YT is your side. If you would rather have the fixed rate, PT.
Liquidity
You can also add hBTC to the Pendle pool. You end up holding hBTC and PT together, and that position earns from four places. The yield hBTC itself earns. The fixed rate on the PT you hold. A share of the fees from every trade in the market. And PENDLE incentives, which Pendle pays to pools from the hour they are whitelisted. Pools can lose value when their two assets drift apart in price. Here the two meet again at maturity, so a position held to the end does not take that loss, and only a small one before then.
Maturity
Maturity is the date PT becomes redeemable and YT stops accruing. After it, PT holders redeem, YT holders claim what they collected, and liquidity providers withdraw. One asset can have several maturities at once, each its own market, and a matured position can be rolled into the next one.
Which one is for whom
PT is for participants who want a known rate to a known date and no interest in the month-to-month path of the strategy.
YT is for participants who think hBTC will earn more over the period than the fixed rate on the page, and they want that yield without holding hBTC itself.
Liquidity is for participants who already hold hBTC and want fees and incentives on top of it, and who are comfortable that half of the position is PT.
None of this changes what hBTC is. The strategy, the fund and the administrator are the same on Pendle as in the vault. What Pendle adds is a date, and a choice about which part of the return you hold until then.
You can find the market HERE. And the pool HERE
For the vault itself, read How hBTC Works. For the mechanics from Pendle's side, read Pendle Academy.
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