Radiant Capital (RDNT)

Overview

Radiant Capital is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol built for several blockchains. Its native token is RDNT. In a lending protocol, people deposit digital assets into shared pools. Other people borrow from those pools by putting up collateral, such as ETH, to help secure their loans. Radiant’s goal is to make this process work across chains, so users have more ways to access funds without managing a separate lending position in every network. (docs.radiant.capital)

Radiant calls this an omnichain money market. The idea addresses a common problem in decentralized finance, or DeFi: assets are spread across blockchains that do not naturally communicate with one another. Radiant combines lending markets with tools for moving borrowed assets across chains. RDNT helps coordinate the system through incentives, liquidity provision, and community governance. (docs.radiant.capital)

History & Team

From Arbitrum to a multichain protocol

Radiant began on Arbitrum in 2022. Its first version offered lending and borrowing on that network, along with a feature that could send certain borrowed assets to another chain through Stargate. The project’s initial contributors funded its early development themselves. In March 2023, Radiant launched version 2, which expanded its approach to cross-chain lending and changed how RDNT rewards were earned. The original version was later retired. (docs.radiant.capital)

Radiant grew through the work of protocol contributors and the Radiant DAO, its community-governance body. Binance Labs also identified Radiant as an investment in its review of 2023 activity. This support came after the project’s self-funded start. (docs.radiant.capital)

In October 2024, an exploit affected Radiant’s lending markets. The DAO later approved a plan to address affected user balances and fund distributions over time. Radiant released version 3 in 2025 and continued developing its lending markets, governance process, and Guardian reserve system. These events are an important part of the protocol’s history because they shaped its later design and priorities. (docs.radiant.capital)

Technology & How It Works

Deposits, loans, and interest

Radiant uses smart contracts to manage deposits and loans. A depositor supplies an asset to a lending market and may earn a return based on borrowing activity. A borrower supplies collateral and takes out a loan in a supported asset. Each market sets limits on how much can be borrowed against collateral. If a loan becomes undercollateralized, a liquidation process allows part of the debt to be repaid using the borrower’s collateral. (docs.radiant.capital)

Borrowing costs respond to utilization: the share of a pool’s available assets that has been borrowed. When a pool has plenty of funds available, its borrowing rate can be lower. As more of the pool is used, the rate rises to encourage repayments and new deposits. This helps the market balance demand for loans with the supply of assets. (docs.radiant.capital)

How cross-chain borrowing works

Radiant’s borrow-and-bridge feature uses Stargate’s routing system. A user can deposit collateral, borrow a supported asset, and choose another chain as the destination for that asset. The loan and collateral remain recorded on the origin chain—the chain where the borrowing position was opened. Repayment takes place there as well. For example, sending borrowed funds to a different network does not move the underlying loan to that network. Radiant’s documentation describes deposits on Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Base, and Ethereum. (docs.radiant.capital)

RDNT itself uses LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard, known as OFT. That design supports moving the token between its supported chains. Cross-chain borrowing and cross-chain RDNT transfers serve different purposes: one routes a borrowed asset, while the other moves the protocol’s native token. (docs.radiant.capital)

Tokenomics & Utility

RDNT has a stated total supply of 1.5 billion tokens. The project’s allocation assigns 47.1% to incentives for suppliers and borrowers, 30.9% to the DAO reserve, 13.3% to the team, 4.7% to core contributors and advisers, and 4% to the treasury and liquidity provision. The team and incentive allocations have release schedules rather than entering circulation all at once. (docs.radiant.capital)

A central part of RDNT’s economic model is dynamic liquidity provision, or dLP. Users create dLP by providing liquidity involving RDNT and another asset, such as ETH or BNB, depending on the chain. They can then lock the resulting liquidity tokens in Radiant. A user who deposits or borrows can qualify for additional RDNT rewards by keeping enough dLP locked. Radiant describes a threshold equal to 5% of the user’s deposit value for activating these emissions. Depositors can still earn the basic market rate without dLP. (docs.radiant.capital)

Locked dLP can also earn a share of protocol revenue from activities that include borrowing interest, flash loans, and liquidations. Radiant offers different lock lengths, and its reward system gives longer commitments different weighting. RDNT rewards can be placed into locked liquidity or received through a vesting process. These rules link token rewards to participation in the protocol’s liquidity system. (docs.radiant.capital)

RDNT also supports governance. Community members use the DAO’s proposal and voting process to guide protocol decisions, while an elected council carries out defined responsibilities. In this way, the token’s role extends beyond rewards to decisions about the markets and their operating rules. (docs.radiant.capital)

Ecosystem & Use Cases

Radiant’s main use case is borrowing against crypto assets without first selling them. A user may deposit an eligible asset, enable it as collateral, and borrow another supported asset. Depositors, meanwhile, make assets available to those borrowers. The protocol connects these two groups through pools whose rates change with market use. (docs.radiant.capital)

Its cross-chain feature adds another option: a borrower can direct funds to a supported destination network while keeping the loan on its origin chain. This can reduce the number of separate steps involved in borrowing and moving an asset. Radiant also uses RDNT-based liquidity pools to support its incentive system. Someone who locks dLP contributes to that system and can become eligible for token emissions and a share of fees. (docs.radiant.capital)

The ecosystem includes governance and remediation tools alongside lending. DAO members can discuss and vote on proposals. Radiant’s remediation portal lets people affected by the October 2024 exploit review calculated balances and, where eligible, interact with claim contracts. The protocol has also described isolated lending markets, called Radiant Innovation Zones, and a Guardian Fund designed to provide a reserve for certain covered events. These features show how Radiant has expanded from a basic lending market into a wider set of DeFi tools. (docs.radiant.capital)

Advantages & Challenges

Radiant’s main advantage is its focus on making lending work across multiple chains. Borrow-and-bridge brings together actions that would otherwise be separate. Its dLP model also ties extra RDNT rewards to users who supply and lock liquidity. Community governance gives token holders a way to shape decisions about the protocol. (docs.radiant.capital)

Those features also make Radiant more complex than a lending market on one chain. Users need to understand where a loan is recorded, where funds are sent, and how dLP locking affects rewards. The October 2024 exploit remains a major challenge in the project’s history. Radiant’s subsequent remediation plan and Guardian design reflect its effort to address affected users and change how the protocol handles such events. (docs.radiant.capital)

Where to Buy & Wallets

RDNT is available on Gate, which lists a spot market for the token. It can also be swapped on decentralized exchanges that support a suitable RDNT pair, including PancakeSwap on BNB Chain. Exchange access depends on the platform and a user’s location. (gate.com)

RDNT can be held in an Ethereum-compatible wallet configured for the network on which the tokens are held. Radiant publishes RDNT contract addresses for Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Ethereum. The network and contract address matter when adding the token to a wallet or moving it between platforms: an RDNT balance on one chain is recorded separately from a balance on another until a supported cross-chain transfer is made. (docs.radiant.capital)

Regulatory & Compliance

Rules for crypto assets and related services differ by jurisdiction. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA, sets requirements for many crypto-asset issuers and service providers. Its application depends on the activity and the parties involved, so the legal treatment of a token, a trading platform, and a DeFi service may differ. In the United States, digital-asset transactions can create tax reporting duties. The IRS says taxpayers must report related income, gains, and losses. (esma.europa.eu)

Radiant’s lending model also matters to readers assessing Shariah compliance. Islamic finance prohibits riba, generally understood to include interest on loans. Radiant charges borrowers interest and distributes returns connected to lending activity. Its lending and borrowing functions therefore do not align with the interest-free financing principle used in Islamic finance. A person assessing a specific way of holding or using RDNT may consider that activity separately from participation in the lending markets. (imf.org)

Future Outlook

Radiant’s development plans focus on how its markets are built and governed. Its 2026 roadmap describes a dual approach: shared lending pools for major assets and more isolated markets for lending pairs with separate rules. The roadmap proposes rebuilding those isolated markets with Morpho-based architecture and exploring products with more predictable lending terms. These are development plans rather than a measure of how widely the features will be used. (medium.com)

The project has also outlined changes to how RDNT incentives are directed, along with a larger role for the Guardian reserve and community governance. Radiant’s longer-term direction will be shaped by the features it deploys, the use of its lending markets, and how the DAO carries out its approved plans. (docs.radiant.capital)

Summary

Radiant Capital uses RDNT to connect lending incentives, liquidity provision, and governance across a multichain DeFi protocol. Its defining feature is the ability to borrow an asset and route it to another network while the loan remains on its origin chain. Since its Arbitrum launch, the project has expanded its markets and revised its design in response to both new goals and the 2024 exploit. Radiant’s place in the crypto ecosystem rests on that combination of cross-chain lending technology and an evolving community-run economic model. (docs.radiant.capital)