Crypto asset investment company Paradigm has reportedly started working on its first crypto project – via jointly drafting a whitepaper for an Ether-powered DeFi protocol offering fixed-rate lending and interest markets.

Specifically, the new DeFi protocol – dubbed “Yield” – was reportedly authored by Dan Robinson and Allan Niemberg from Paradigm, who have publicly revealed that project on May 8th. 

Niemberg has also disclosed details about seed investment made by Paradigm into Yield Protocol, which will be primarily channeled into designing the initial version of the product.

The Ether-powered protocol reportedly looks to boast “fixed-term, fixed-rate lending and interest-rate markets to decentralized finance”, with its white paper to form “a standard for a token that settles based on the value of a target asset on a specified future date, and which is backed by some quantity of a collateral asset.”

The first project that reportedly will make use of what Yield Protocol can offer is the creation and generating of ERC-20-based zero-coupon bonds – a tradeable tool for debt which pays its holder at a fixed price on maturity. 

“yTokens are like zero-coupon bonds: on-chain obligations that settle on a specific future date based on the price of some target asset, and are secured by collateral in another asset.”

The first batch of Yield’s bonds – called yTokens – will reportedly be yDAI, grant users the power to conduct Ether-enabled lending and borrowing process of MakerDAO’s stablecoin Dai.