Maple & Syrup: Leading the DeFi Renaissance
How Maple scaled from $50 million to over $600 million in TVL in a year and the upcoming launch of $SYRUP
Maple: A Trailblazer in Institutional DeFi
Maple has emerged as a trailblazer in DeFi, revolutionizing the institutional lending and borrowing landscape since its launch in 2021. Recognizing Maple’s potential to reshape the sector, we at Tioga made the strategic decision to back this remarkable team in early 2023, shortly after the FTX collapse, which profoundly impacted the lending space. By establishing trust through transparency and verifiability, Maple bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, creating a secure environment for overcollateralized lending at an institutional scale.
Maple’s rapid growth is evidenced by its metrics (see the hockey stick on this dashboard and illustration below). In just the last 12 months, its TVL (Total Value Locked) surged by more than 12x, from $50 million to over $600 million. The platform’s revenue has followed a similar growth, reaching close to $4.5 million annualized.
Maple is actively contributing to the DeFi Renaissance, characterized by the introduction of new DeFi primitives (e.g., syrupUSDC integration into Pendle & Ether.fi), improved UX (e.g., permissionless access through Syrup), and better risk management (e.g., internal collateral analysis and borrower underwriting). Maple also contributes to the adoption of RWA, with its ability to facilitate private credit directly on-chain. This capability opens up a wealth of lending opportunities while ensuring that all transactions meet security and transparency requirements. By offering overcollateralized loans and allowing lenders to earn yields on their digital assets, Maple has positioned itself as a go-to platform for institutional lenders and borrowers. The protocol has originated over $5 billion in loans over the last three years, enabling crypto institutions to access liquidity in a decentralized and transparent manner. They currently hold close to $200 million in outstanding loans, more than tripling since last year.
The team is well-positioned to capitalize on several key tailwinds that are expected to drive its growth. As traditional instruments like treasury bills become less attractive due to declining yields, more capital is likely to flow on-chain, particularly with the surge in stablecoin adoption (as evidenced by Stripe’s recent acquisition of Bridge). This influx of on-chain capital will be seeking efficient credit solutions offering low double-digit yields—a gap that Maple is perfectly suited to fill. Given the barriers to accessing credit in traditional finance, where relationships and scale are often prerequisites, yield opportunities are only accessible to institutions and accredited investors. Maple’s ability to democratize access to credit presents a compelling advantage and the growing demand from traditional institutions is already a testament to Maple’s effectiveness in addressing these market needs.
Maple’s appeal is further reflected in its capacity to deliver sustainable and attractive returns within a secure and compliant environment, enabling institutions to engage with DeFi confidently. Additionally, Maple offers substantial operational efficiencies to borrowers, cutting back-office costs by over 50% through improvements in distribution management, cap table administration, debt structuring, and reporting. This combination of increasing demand for on-chain credit and Maple's ability to provide cost-effective solutions with robust infrastructure positions it for continued growth and traction in the DeFi space.
On the product offering front, they continue to evolve through key strategic partnerships and new collateral options. For example, the integration of LBTC into Maple’s collateral framework, through its recent partnership with Lombard, enables institutional borrowers to reduce costs while simultaneously earning staking rewards on their BTC.
Syrup: Unlocking the Next Chapter of DeFi
With the launch of Syrup last quarter, Maple has opened up its platform to a broader audience while building upon its institutional-grade infrastructure. Syrup represents the permissionless counterpart to Maple’s institutional platform, designed to be accessible to all lenders while being built on the same Maple protocol. Note that the two protocols run (and will continue to run) in tandem.
In just four months, Syrup’s TVL has grown to more than $300 million with an average deposit size in Syrup pools standing at close to $100,000.
In addition to its expanding user base, Maple has formed key partnerships that enhance the Syrup offering, such as with ether.fi, introducing Syrup as a consistent yield source for ether.fi users while unlocking a new credit market for institutional holders of eETH. Syrup’s collaboration with Pendle also offers more possibilities for its users, as Pendle allows participants to access Syrup’s high-yield institutional lending and earn Drips rewards, which will convert to $SYRUP tokens. By leveraging Pendle’s composable financial primitives, users can split yield-bearing assets into principal and yield tokens, unlocking new trading and liquidity opportunities. This integration introduces a unique source of yield to yield traders and embeds Syrup yield further into DeFi.
Scheduled for release on November 13, the $SYRUP token will provide new opportunities for decentralized participation in Maple’s ecosystem through staking, governance, and rewards. Upon launch, $SYRUP stakers will actively benefit from Maple’s expansion by receiving reward distributions. Staking $SYRUP offers participants the chance to earn rewards while engaging in governance. For more information, please follow the official Maple communication channels.
Doubling down on Maple and RWA
At Tioga Capital, we keep being impressed by Maple, as we witness their impressive growth and, above all, a team that is dedicated, passionate, and executing particularly well. Our belief in Maple’s and RWA’s long-term potential has been further solidified through our in-depth discussions with industry participants at our recent RWA Summit in Brussels. As Maple continues to drive the DeFi Renaissance & RWA Emergence, Tioga is proud to support its journey, helping shape the future of decentralized finance for institutions and beyond.