The Core Invariant
The value of one PT plus one YT always equals the value of one SY: This is the foundation of the entire system. If market prices diverge from this relationship, arbitrage restores the balance.PT Price & Implied APY
PT trades at a discount to face value. The size of that discount is your fixed return — and the market expresses it as an implied APY using continuous compounding: Where is time to maturity as a fraction of a year. Higher implied APY means a bigger discount on PT — and a higher fixed return for the buyer.
This works in both directions — given a PT price from the market, you can derive the implied APY: .
A quick way to estimate your annualized return without the exponential math: . For moderate rates and short durations both methods give nearly the same number — they only diverge meaningfully at high APYs or long maturities.
When PT is priced against SY rather than the base asset, divide by the exchange rate: . Because SY appreciates over time, PT always appears cheaper in SY terms.
YT Pricing & Leverage
YT price is the complement of PT, adjusted by the exchange rate: Because YT costs a fraction of the full asset, it creates inherent leverage on yield. The leverage multiplier is simply :
As maturity approaches, PT converges to 1.00 and YT converges to 0 — this is time decay. YT loses value over time even if the underlying rate hasn’t changed, because less time remains to earn yield.