ListaDAO launches smart lending, making "borrowing to earn profits" possible.

Original article | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

Author｜Golem ( @web3_golem )

What is the ultimate form of DeFi?

The answer is increasingly leaning towards "Lending + DEX", which integrates the lending market with decentralized exchanges on the same product layer, allowing funds to be lent out and generate returns on the blockchain.

In the past, common DeFi models in the market included original and simple lending markets such as Aave and Compound, independent AMMs such as Uniswap and Pancake, or modular yield aggregators that used high APY as an incentive to move user funds between different protocols.

While these models align with the development trend of DeFi, they still disperse DeFi functionality across different protocols, requiring users to bridge "multiple protocols" themselves or through strategies. This not only complicates the user experience but also reduces the flexibility of funds.

In contrast, "Lending + DEX" is the true Lego of DeFi, integrating protocol lending capabilities with deep liquidity on DEXs. In this model, a user's money can do "two jobs": both as collateral for lending and as a continuous source of fees and incentives on the DEX through LP positions. Users can switch between different functions more smoothly, asset interoperability is higher, and overall capital utilization is significantly improved.

On December 2nd, ListaDAO launched the Swap feature for its Smart Lending, a perfect embodiment of the "Lending + DEX" model. Smart Lending, a new lending model launched by ListaDAO in early November, allows users to deposit loan collateral into the Lista DEX liquidity pool. This not only lowers loan interest rates for users but also automatically earns LP fees for the collateral deposited into the DEX.

Why use Lista Smart Lending?

From a user's perspective, in operation, smart lending is no different from traditional lending; users deposit collateral and obtain loans at a certain ratio. The only difference is that Lista puts the collateral for smart lending into the Lista DEX liquidity pool (LP), and the transaction fees earned by the collateral on the DEX are distributed to the collateralized lending users.

Lista's smart lending currently supports borrowing USD1 and BNB using BTCB, SolvBTC, slisBNB, and BNB as collateral. There are a total of 4 vaults, where users can deposit at a fixed ratio or customize any ratio, and the same applies to redemption.

For borrowers: The loan is free, and you receive a 0.05% return.

No matter how complex or well-explained the model, nothing beats a realistic interest rate. While the wording may be blunt, the principle is sound: most of the time, users only care about APY and low borrowing rates. Lista's smart lending perfectly meets these needs, offering more attractive interest rates.

Under the smart lending model, the interest rate for a user borrowing USD1 is 0.03%. If the current collateral yield of 0.1% (from LP fee income) is added, the borrower actually obtains a yield of 0.07%.

Even on Lista, the current interest rate for borrowing USD1 is above 1%, while the interest rate for borrowing BNB is around 2.9%. On Venus, the interest rates for borrowing USD1 and BNB are as high as 6.4% and 2.08%, respectively.

Lista Smart Lending Rates

For depositors: Transaction fee yield up to 6%

Besides the attractive lending rates, the returns on smart lending are even more appealing, with future returns projected to be between 5-6%. Yes, you heard right, borrowing on Lista could not only be near interest-free in the future, but could even generate returns for you.

While the yield on smart lending is currently only 0.1%, this was before Lista DEX officially launched. Lista DEX officially launched on December 2nd. This DEX aggregates multiple liquidity pools and can automatically select the best path and price for users. Previously, Lista DEX was only available within the Binance Wallet, significantly limiting its reach to users. Now, with its independent UI, and as more users adopt Lista DEX, collateral yields are expected to increase significantly.

Currently, the LP APR of slisBNB/BNB on PancakeSwap is around 4-6%. If Lista DEX becomes one of the mainstream DEXs on BNB in the future, the smart lending yield of Lista will also reach 6%.

Even if you're just a saver, Lista's smart lending will be an attractive option.

Furthermore, as more funds are deposited into smart lending, the liquidity of the Lista DEX pool will increase, which will bring more tangible benefits to Swap users, including greater liquidity and lower slippage.

Expanding the possibilities of BNBFi: slisBNBx

Lista's ecosystem always has synergistic effects. On December 2nd, in addition to launching the Swap feature, Lista announced the addition of BNB/slisBNB smart LPs to its smart lending platform. Users can automatically mint slisBNBx with a single click after adding an LP.

With this certificate, users can basically enjoy all the benefits on the BNB chain, including Lista DEX transaction fee revenue, BNB liquidity staking revenue, Binance Launchpool, Megadrop, and HODLer participation qualifications. If users add leverage, they will receive even more significant returns.

Simultaneously satisfying the preferences of two types of DeFi users and improving capital efficiency.

In DeFi, there are two distinct types of users based on their risk appetite. One type is the collateralized borrower with a higher risk appetite, who either uses collateral for revolving loans to increase returns or uses the loans to buy more volatile crypto assets at bargain prices. The other type is the LP (Limited Partner) user with a lower risk appetite, who only act as a stable LP, content with returns of 5-10%, and occasionally taking a more aggressive approach by participating in early mining projects with an APY of over 30%.

In the traditional lending market, it's difficult to simultaneously meet the needs of these two types of users, but Lista Smart Lending achieves this perfectly. Users who prefer collateralized lending to amplify their financial leverage can enjoy low interest rates and passively earn transaction fees through smart lending, while users who prefer to be LPs can obtain stable transaction fee income from Lista DEX and use the lent funds to add more LPs.

Clearly, Lista's smart lending enhances the flexibility of users' funds, adapts to the needs of different users, and greatly improves capital efficiency.

Lista's intelligent lending system's risk control

Following the recent collapse of on-chain wealth management platforms, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars fleeing the blockchain, users have developed significant reservations about on-chain wealth management and the Curator model. So, is Lista's smart lending, which sounds like it allows users to "eat and get free," truly safe? Could it suffer the same fate as other similar collapses?

It's normal for users to have these questions, but Lista has already taken all the risks into account.

Firstly, the vault for smart lending is not managed by Curator, but is uniformly dispatched to the Lista DEX by Lista, so there is no risk of Curator going bankrupt.

Collateral 3% Price De-anchoring Risk Control Mechanism

Secondly, users may worry that using collateral as LP positions could lead to liquidity losses in extreme market conditions. For example, in a pool of solvBTC and BTCB, what happens if the solv protocol collapses or is stolen, and solvBTC becomes unlinked?

To mitigate this risk, Lista has implemented a 3% price de-anchoring mechanism. This means that if the value of 1 solvBTC is equal to or less than 0.97 BTC, Lista DEX will no longer allow the exchange of solvBTC for BTCB, preventing the depletion of BTCB. In this extreme situation, users can only redeem their collateral at a fixed ratio, preventing all their collateral from becoming worthless solvBTC.

Meanwhile, the 3% anti-anchoring ratio can be dynamically adjusted. For example, if Lista discovers a problem with the Solv team, it will proactively reduce the anti-anchoring ratio to ensure that the user's other collateral will not be lost.

SLISBNB's rigid redemption principle

What if Lista's SLISBNB collapses instead of other projects' tokens? Don't worry, Lista has already considered this.

slisBNB is the liquidity staking certificate for Lista. Lista has staked all its BNB in validators on the BNB Chain, giving it the ability to guarantee redemption. Even if Lista is liquidated, users can still redeem their BNB.

Lista is undervalued compared to Fluid.

Users familiar with DeFi will notice the striking similarities between Lista's smart lending model and Fluid. Fluid is indeed the originator of this type of model, and Lista has improved upon it and introduced it to the BNB Chain. By comparing Lista to Fluid, it's clear that Lista has been underestimated.

According to official Fluid data, Fluid's total available lending liquidity is approximately $21 million, with $5.34 million already lent out, representing a utilization rate of approximately 25%. Lista Smart Loans currently has a total available lending liquidity of approximately $4 million, with approximately $1.2 million already lent out, representing a utilization rate of approximately 30%.

Lista's smart lending has only been launched for two weeks, but its capital utilization efficiency has already surpassed Fluid, indicating that the model is popular on BNB Chain. Once Lista DEX is fully launched, its scale will expand rapidly.

According to CoinGecko data, Fluid currently has a market capitalization of $217 million, while Lista's market capitalization is only $45 million, indicating that the LISTA token is significantly undervalued. Fluid is currently based on the Ethereum ecosystem, with over 60% of its TVL accumulated on the Ethereum chain, while Lista is primarily built on the BNB Chain ecosystem. As the first DeFi protocol to launch this model on the BNB Chain, LISTA's token value is currently underestimated.

With the growth of smart lending and Lista DEX, LISTA tokens are expected to experience a new round of value discovery.

Smart lending drives the Lista DeFi flywheel

Since the launch of Lista Lending this year, Lista TVL has surged. In 2024, the fees generated by the Lista protocol were $4.9 million, and so far in 2025, they have exceeded $9.5 million, which shows that the BNB Chain ecosystem has strong and continuously growing loan demand.

Meanwhile, Lista Lending's TVL on BSC exceeds $870 million, and its total borrowing exceeds $570 million, revitalizing on-chain value and significantly improving the capital efficiency of BNB Chain users. Now, Lista Smart Lending and Swap will further empower the BNB Chain ecosystem and elevate Lista's protocol revenue to new heights.

The core lies in Lista's "Lending + Dex" DeFi Lego wheel:

Lista's smart lending platform reduces user borrowing costs through efficient capital utilization. Lower borrowing costs attract more Total Value Added (TVL), which in turn increases the liquidity depth of the DEX, generating more transaction fees. These increased transaction fees, in turn, improve the yield of smart lending, further enhancing its attractiveness...

In this way, user funds can complete a closed loop within the Lista protocol. When users enter Lista, they can not only experience a low-slippage DEX, but also seamlessly integrate collateralized lending and LP deposits, achieving a smooth process, mutual asset recognition, and efficient capital. This is the magic of "Lengding + DEX," and also the magic of the DeFi Lego flywheel built by Lista.