Ethereum-based lending protocol Fira has launched after collecting roughly $450 million in pre-launch deposits, positioning itself as a fixed-rate alternative to the typical variable-rate credit markets onchain.
Rather than relying on utilization-driven floating rates, Fira structures lending around defined maturities. Borrowers can lock in borrowing costs for a set term, while lenders receive predictable returns for those maturities. Interest levels are determined by supply-and-demand across yield curves and specific terms, replacing the utilization algorithms that change with borrowing activity in many existing DeFi platforms.
The protocol’s design brings fixed-income primitives—yield curves and term structure—into decentralized finance in a way that mirrors traditional fixed-income markets. Fira joins other projects offering fixed-rate options, including Notional Finance, IPOR and Term Finance.
Liquidity migration from Euler
Fira said the roughly $450 million in deposits were reallocated from users of the modular lending platform Euler Finance during a pre-launch phase that began on Jan. 8. According to Pete Siegel, Fira’s chief financial officer, the first market, called UZR, enabled about a thousand Euler users to move assets into fixed-rate positions.
DeFiLlama lists Fira’s total value locked on Ethereum at approximately $451.6 million. By comparison, sector leader Aave shows roughly $25.3 billion, underscoring Fira’s early but notable scale relative to major lending platforms.
Security posture
Fira’s smart contracts underwent six independent security audits between November 2025 and early 2026, completed by Sherlock, Spearbit via Cantina, Hexens and yAudit. The protocol maintains a bug bounty program run through Sherlock that offers up to $500,000 for discoveries of critical vulnerabilities in its open-source Ethereum contracts.
Outlook
Fira’s launch underscores growing demand for fixed-rate onchain credit and reflects a broader effort to introduce defined maturities and fixed-income mechanics into DeFi. Cointelegraph encourages independent verification of reported details and follows its editorial policy.