Spectra
Credit · Fixed Income · SPECTRA
Spectra (formerly APWine) is a permissionless interest-rate derivatives protocol: any yield-bearing asset can be split into principal and yield tokens to trade fixed and variable rates.
Permissionless yield tokenization (ex-APWine).
Protocol TVL
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Research
Components, facts, FAQ, timeline, and tokenomics in one place
Main components (4)
Principal & Yield Token (PT / YT) tokenization
Users deposit an ERC-4626 interest-bearing token (IBT) or its underlying asset and receive two tokens: a Principal Token (PT), redeemable 1:1 for the underlying at maturity, and a Yield Token (YT), which captures all future yield until maturity. This 'yield tokenization' splits a yield-bearing position into a fixed-rate component (PT) and a variable-yield component (YT), enabling fixed rates, yield speculation, and hedging.
AMM pools (Curve-based)
PTs trade against their underlying IBT in dedicated automated market maker pools. The price of the PT relative to the underlying implies a fixed yield-to-maturity. Spectra's pools are built on a Curve cryptoswap AMM design, letting users buy PTs at a discount (locking in a fixed rate) or provide liquidity to earn swap fees and incentives.
Permissionless pool creation
Anyone can create a new yield-tokenization market for any ERC-4626 vault at will, without protocol-team approval. This permissionless design lets the protocol list new yield-bearing assets (from lending markets, liquid staking, and stablecoin issuers) faster than curated competitors.
SPECTRA token & veSPECTRA governance
SPECTRA is the ecosystem and governance token (migrated from APW). Holders can lock SPECTRA as vote-escrowed veSPECTRA to participate in weekly gauge votes directing incentive emissions, earn a share of protocol fees plus a rebase. Governance, gauge voting, and reward claims run on the Base network.
Differentiator
Permissionless market creation for yield tokenization — anyone can list a new PT/YT market for an interest-bearing asset.
Organizational structure
Units & roles
- Core development team / labs
Perspective (perspectivefi)
The team building Spectra (formerly APWine Finance), founded August 2020 in the Paris / Île-de-France area by Antoine Mouran and Gaspard Peduzzi. Maintains the spectra-core and spectra-governance repositories under the perspectivefi GitHub org.
- Decentralized governance
Spectra DAO (veSPECTRA governance)
Community governance conducted via SPECTRA/veSPECTRA holders. Proposal voting (SIPs/SGPs), gauge voting, and reward claims take place on the Base network. veSPECTRA lockers direct incentive emissions and share in protocol fees.
Investment rounds
Similarity to traditional finance products
How Spectra maps onto established TradFi structures, and where it diverges.
| TradFi product | Similarity to Spectra | Key differences |
|---|---|---|
| Zero-coupon bond / STRIPS (Treasury interest-rate strips) | A Spectra Principal Token behaves like a zero-coupon bond: it trades at a discount and redeems for full face value at a fixed maturity date, so the buyer locks in a fixed yield. This is the same mechanic as a stripped Treasury (STRIPS), where the principal and coupon cash flows are separated and sold individually. | Spectra PTs reference on-chain yield-bearing tokens (lending / staking receipts) rather than sovereign debt, have no credit guarantee, and carry smart-contract and depeg risk. The separately tradable Yield Token has no clean TradFi equivalent as a liquid retail instrument. |
| Interest-rate swap / fixed-vs-floating rate market | By choosing PT (fixed) versus YT (floating), a user effectively takes one side of a fixed-vs-floating interest-rate trade, letting them hedge or speculate on the direction of a yield rate — the core function of an interest-rate swap market. | Spectra is fully collateralized, non-custodial, and permissionless with no ISDA/dealer intermediary; positions are tokenized and exit is via an AMM rather than a bilateral swap contract. |