【TermMax: The On-Chain Fixed Interest Rate Revolution】

▋Last year, a friend of mine was complaining

He collateralized 500,000 worth of Ethereum on a DeFi platform and borrowed 200,000 to do business

At that time, the borrowing rate was 8% annualized, so the interest for a year was 16,000, which was acceptable

But two months later, the market fluctuated, and the rate skyrocketed to 18%

The annual interest became 36,000, more than doubling

He said it felt like renting a storefront, and the landlord suddenly told him the rent was going up—take it or leave it

This is the most headache-inducing part of crypto lending

Interest rates are like a roller coaster—5% today, 12% tomorrow, then back to 8% the day after

You never know how much you'll owe next month

▋Traditional banks would never do this

When you take out a mortgage, the bank clearly states the interest rate and how much you'll pay monthly over 30 years

This is called a fixed interest rate

But in crypto, almost all platforms use floating rates

Why?

Because it's technically simple

Market supply and demand determine the rate, and a few lines of code can handle it

As for user experience? That’s not the priority

▋TermMax did something different

They brought the concept of fixed interest rates onto the blockchain

How exactly?

Using a model called zero-coupon bonds

Sounds academic, right? But the principle is very simple

Suppose you want to borrow 10,000 dollars, with a one-year term, and the market fixed rate is 10%

The traditional way is you borrow 10,000 and pay back 11,000 after a year

TermMax’s approach is you only get 9,090 dollars upfront, with an agreement to repay 10,000 in a year

This locks the interest rate at 10%

No matter how crazy the market gets, your cost remains the same

▋Recently, TermMax announced a partnership with Ondo

What does Ondo do? It tokenizes real-world assets like stocks and bonds

For example, Tesla stock, Apple stock, U.S. Treasury bonds—all can be turned into tokens on the blockchain

You can trade 24/7, transfer across borders, and use them as collateral for loans

Ondo currently manages $350 million in assets, supporting over 100 U.S. stocks and ETFs

This scale is already significant in the tokenized asset space

Partnering with Ondo means you can use stock tokens as collateral to borrow fixed-rate funds

▋Imagine a scenario

You hold $100,000 worth of Apple stock tokens

You believe Apple will rise long-term and don’t want to sell

But you urgently need $50,000 for liquidity

What do you do?

The traditional way is to go to a broker for a stock pledge loan, which has high and variable interest rates

Now, you can use these stock tokens as collateral on TermMax to borrow $50,000 in stablecoins

The rate is locked at 8% annualized, with a six-month term

You get the money, your stocks are still in your possession, and the cost is fixed

This reminds me of something

During last year's market crash, many people with floating-rate loans saw their borrowing costs skyrocket and were forced to liquidate

If they had used fixed rates back then, they could have avoided this situation

▋Retail investors might think it’s no big deal, just playing around

Institutions, however, can’t afford that

A fund investing tens of millions of dollars must know exactly the costs and returns of each transaction

The CFO needs to report to the board and can’t say interest rates are unpredictable

This is why fixed-income products are so popular in traditional finance

Bonds, fixed deposits, fixed-rate loans—all designed for institutions

TermMax is bringing this concept onto the blockchain, effectively paving a way for institutional capital to enter

▋Besides fixed-rate lending, TermMax is also developing treasury systems, options markets, and curator mechanisms

Sounds complicated, right?

Simply put, they aim to create an on-chain version of major brokerage services

In traditional finance, major brokers provide one-stop services for institutions

Lending, market making, risk control, clearing—all handled seamlessly

TermMax wants to replicate this model on the blockchain

Their data over the past year has been decent

Peak locked assets reached $43 million, with 200,000 users and 20,000 daily active users

Trading volume hit $48 million

While this scale isn’t huge in DeFi, it proves that demand for such innovative products is real

▋Back to the original question

When will crypto mature to the level of traditional finance?

I think fixed interest rates could be a key milestone

When you can precisely calculate the cost and return of each fund

When you no longer have to worry about daily rate fluctuations

When you can plan long-term like with traditional bank loans

That’s when crypto truly shifts from a casino to a market

What TermMax is doing is pushing in this direction

Whether it succeeds depends on how the market chooses