In the DeFi dominated by floating interest rates, a fixed-term protocol has reached Binance Alpha through uncollateralized leverage.

Written by: Grok

Assisted by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

On August 25, Binance Alpha will officially launch TermMax (TMX), with the TGE starting on the same day. The participation threshold for the TermMax (TMX) airdrop has been announced; users need to reach 225 Alpha points to participate. Participating in this activity will consume 15 points, reducing by 5 points each minute. The event will start today at 18:00.

TermMax is a fixed-rate, fixed-term lending and leverage protocol developed by Term Structure Labs. Its core mechanism lies in: the interest rate and term are locked when opening a position, users acquire leveraged positions by paying a one-time premium, with no additional margin required in the process, and there is no liquidation price.

From V1 to Alpha: Layered Advancement of the Product Line

In April 2025, TermMax V1 was launched on Ethereum and Arbitrum, followed by the completion of deployment on BNB Chain and expansion to networks such as Base, Berachain, X Layer, HyperEVM, and Robinhood Chain.

On the product level, the team launched the TermMax Alpha module above the basic fixed-rate market. Users can open Call (bullish) or Put (bearish) positions by paying a fixed premium, and if the price is favorable at maturity, they profit; if not, the maximum loss is limited to the premium paid itself—there is no additional margin and no liquidation trigger line. Users holding Binance Alpha new coins or stablecoins can deposit their assets into the Dual Investment Treasury to earn the premium paid by traders, with annualized returns potentially reaching double-digit percentages. This mechanism later extends to tokenized stocks (bStocks) and some RWA collateral scenarios.

The underlying assets consist of three types of tokens: FT (Fixed-rate Token) represents the principal, redeemed at face value at maturity, and buying at a discount locks in the yield; XT (Yield Token) corresponds to interest, which can be immediately sold by the borrower to fix borrowing costs; GT (Gearing Token) encapsulates the leverage position in NFT form, compressing multi-step circular lending into a single transaction.

Entering the first half of 2026, institutional products are gradually being launched. TermPrime, as a fixed-rate, fixed-term financing venue, is deployed on Canton Network, while TermMax simultaneously operates validator nodes. App V2 achieved cross-chain unified ordering and position management. The team graduated from YZi Labs EASY Residency Season 3 during the same period and deepened collaborations with protocols like Keyrock, Morpho, Aave, Venus, and Pendle.

Data, Financing, and Roadmap

According to project disclosures, TermMax currently has a TVL exceeding 90 million USD, over 1.5 million registered wallets, and approximately 90,000 daily active users (peaking at over 170,000), covering 10 EVM chains, and completed integrations with Morpho, Aave, Venus, Pendle, Keyrock, and others. It should be noted that the on-chain public data source shows different TVL readings at various time points; the actual tradable liquidity and the total locked volume of the protocol are not the same concept.

In terms of financing, a seed round of approximately 4.25 million USD was completed in November 2023, led by Cumberland DRW, with participation from Decima Fund, HashKey Capital, Longling Capital, MZ Web3 Fund, among others. The disclosed total financing amount ranges from approximately 4.25 million to 6.8 million USD.

Key nodes in the roadmap are summarized as follows:

• April 2025: V1 launched, followed by multi-chain expansion and the release of V2 features (composable earnings, atomic orders, etc.);
• November 2025: Alpha product launched;
• 2026: App V2 deployed, TermPrime institutional version launched, Canton validator nodes running, YZi Labs graduation;
• August 25, 2026: TGE and governance tokens launched.

Future plans include further decentralization of governance rights, deepening RWA assets, developing interest rate swap functionalities, and more institutional collaborations.

Token Economics and Valuation

The total supply of TMX is fixed at 1 billion tokens, with an initial circulation of approximately 20%. Token uses include governance voting, staking to obtain sTMX and earn rewards, whitelist for risk managers, and market creation permissions, among others. The allocation structure is roughly: community 15%, ecosystem 29%, investors 28%, team 15%, with the remainder for liquidity, foundation, and advisors. Early XP, AP, MP point rewards will be available for collection after the TGE.

In terms of valuation, currently, there is no specific FDV expectation market for TMX on prediction markets like Polymarket. Actual price discovery will depend on liquidity depth and real usage data post-launch.

Team Introduction

Public information shows that TermMax is developed by Term Structure Labs. The co-founder and CEO is Jerry Li, and the co-founder and CTO is Vincent Li (Vincent W. Li).

Jerry Li previously worked at Deutsche Bank, serving as managing director and head of global emerging markets for Greater China, and was on the global emerging markets executive committee. He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering and financial engineering from Cornell University.

Vincent Li has a background in entrepreneurship, previously serving as co-founder and CTO of Termsoup.com and co-founder and general manager of Enlightouch Inc. He is a Fulbright scholar and holds a master's degree in political science from the University of Kansas.

The publicly listed advisory team includes Luphia Chang, CTO of TideBit and Boltchain, GH Hwang, professor of computer engineering at National Taiwan Normal University, NIC Lin, senior blockchain engineer at imToken, and Ethan Yang, head of Matrixport Taiwan.

Summary

The launch of Binance Alpha is essentially a two-way exchange of points and traffic. The project side exchanges existing data and products for exposure, while users seek airdrops with points, with both sides observing the absorption capacity of the secondary market. Curators control treasury pricing and management authority, while the protocol's fee capturing ability remains to be validated.

Compared to protocols like Pendle that have established a strong presence in the fixed-income sector, TermMax's differentiation is more reflected in its uncollateralized leverage mechanism and new coin application scenarios, rather than just the interest rate locking itself. The TGE on August 25 marks TermMax's transition from the product construction phase to the public testing phase of governance and liquidity.