Why Institutions Are Finally Ready for Public Blockchains

The crypto market experienced over **$5 billion in forced liquidations** across four days—the largest deleveraging event since October 2025. On February 1 alone, nearly **$2.2 billion in futures contracts** were liquidated, affecting more than 335,000 investors. **Key drivers of the selloff:** - Escalating U.S.-Iran tensions and a looming government shutdown triggered global risk-off sentiment - January 2026 saw **~$1.7 billion in weekly outflows** from U.S. Bitcoin and Ether spot ETFs—the largest since mid-November 2025 - A single-day withdrawal of nearly $1 billion on January 29 amplified selling pressure During the turbulence, structured yield products remained stable. Products like [aarna's atvPTmax](http://app.aarna.ai) delivered consistent **10-12% APY in USDC** through Pendle PT strategies, unaffected by market chaos. The event mirrors October's $9.9 billion liquidation, highlighting the risks of leveraged directional strategies versus structured yield approaches that prioritize capital preservation.

**atvPTmax**, an automated vault by aarna, has achieved **~11% annualized APY** in pure USDC returns over two months, outperforming traditional stablecoin lending by approximately 80% on a risk-adjusted basis. **Key Performance Metrics:** - **+1.8% absolute USDC return** over 2 months - **NAV progression: 1.0000 → 1.01821** with zero drawdowns - **TVL scaled 3x** ($150k → $482k) without degrading returns **How It Works:** The vault uses Pendle Principal Tokens (PTs) to lock in fixed yields at discounted rates. Capital is deployed across 11 PT markets with automated rebalancing—15 rebalances executed to manage maturity timing, liquidity conditions, and position sizing. **Technical Advantages:** - Powered by **TARS AI agent** for real-time market scanning - Positions capped at **<5% of pool TVL** to minimize slippage - Automated maturity rolls prevent idle capital - Strict risk controls: no leverage, oracle verification, concentration limits **Why PTs Outperform Variable Yield:** Pendle PTs provide fixed, predictable carry that excels during market volatility. Recent examples show PT strategies capturing 3-3.5% alpha over variable staking when funding rates compress or points programs fade. Manual PT strategies struggle at scale due to liquidity fragmentation across isolated pools, but atvPTmax's automated execution solves this for institutional-grade deployment. [Deploy capital](https://bit.ly/4puRJTC)

Aarna's onchain execution agent, TARS, addresses risk management for autonomous DeFi operations through four key mechanisms: **Continuous monitoring**: Tracks portfolio exposure and market conditions block-by-block, enforcing diversification caps and position limits at execution. **Policy constraints**: Deploys capital only into whitelisted markets meeting liquidity, maturity, and withdrawal criteria. **Automated de-risking**: Reduces exposure or reallocates when thresholds are breached due to maturity compression or liquidity changes. **Safety controls**: All actions pass through oracle validation, slippage checks, and multisig-gated execution. The system operates on Pendle PT markets, automatically rolling or reducing allocations as tokens approach expiry to maintain yield and capital discipline.

A comprehensive conversation with Vivek Ramaswamy covering cryptocurrency policy and regulatory frameworks is now available for viewing. **Key Points:** - Full interview accessible at [unhashed.co/vivek](http://unhashed.co/vivek) - Discussion spans multiple days of content (January 27-30) - Focuses on crypto regulation and policy perspectives The conversation provides insights into regulatory approaches and policy considerations for the digital asset space.