Credit · SYRUP
Maple Finance runs onchain lending pools to vetted borrowers (institutions, funds and businesses), closer to a blockchain-based credit marketplace than open overcollateralized DeFi lending.
Onchain institutional / private credit.
SYRUP price
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Maple runs institutional onchain credit, originating loans to institutional borrowers and packaging the resulting cashflows for lenders. Its current flagship products, syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT, provide access to "fixed-rate, loans to institutional borrowers", with automatic margin calls and a dynamic instant liquidity buffer (Maple docs, syrup FAQ, Maple, built for scale). Loans are governed by Master Lending Agreements with collateral posted against each one, and Maple is explicit that "each loan is subject to the risk of default and could lead to potential losses for Lenders" (Maple docs, syrup risks). This is the only entity in this set with genuine counterparty credit risk, and it has already realised one: the December 2022 Orthogonal Trading default on $36m of permissioned pool loans (The Block). Maple also runs a US-facing Cash Management product under a Reg D exemption for accredited investors, investing in T-bills and reverse repos via StoneX (Maple, Cash Management).
Institutional / private-credit model: borrower quality, repayment history, collateral ratios, defaults, pool managers and loan terms matter most.
Permissioned, KYC-gated lending pools where institutional capital allocators lend USDC/USDT to vetted crypto-native borrowers (prop trading firms, market makers, miners, yield funds). Since 2023 all loans are overcollateralized (typically 105-130%) with BTC, ETH or SOL held in Maple's custody contracts, running 30-180 day fixed-rate tenors. Underwriting is handled in-house by Maple Direct.
Permissionless, yield-bearing tokenized lending vaults launched alongside SYRUP in Nov 2024 that let non-institutional users deposit stablecoins. Deposits are routed into Maple's underlying institutional credit pools; the syrupUSDC token accrues value as borrowers repay interest, abstracting the KYC-gated pools behind a single composable ERC-20.
Maple's in-house credit and underwriting arm, launched June 2023. It sources and vets institutional borrowers and issues overcollateralized USDC/USDT loans backed by BTC, ETH and staked ETH held with a qualified custodian, bypassing banks. It is the credit engine behind the secured institutional lending book.
The protocol's governance and value-accrual token, which replaced the legacy MPL token in Nov 2024 at a fixed 1 MPL : 100 SYRUP rate. Holders can stake to stSYRUP for rewards and govern the protocol. A portion of protocol revenue funds strategic SYRUP buybacks.
Founded in 2019; "Maple launched in 2021, with a white paper and an MVP"; Immunefi records the bug bounty live since 25 January 2022
Maple AboutMaple V2 era contracts (December 2022 release onward) with syrupUSDC, syrupUSDT and syrupUSDG
Maple docs, security"The Maple DAO" is named as holding administrative controls; the GitHub organisation is maple-labs. No incorporated entity name and no jurisdiction confirmed in a fetched source: `n.a.`
Maple docs, syrup risks`n.a.` A US-facing Reg D exemption applies to the Cash Management product for accredited investors
Maple, Cash ManagementSYRUP, with stSYRUP as the sole governance token under MIP-012; 1 MPL converted to 100 SYRUP under MIP-010
MIP-012Discourse forum at https://community.maple.finance/ and Snapshot at https://snapshot.org/#/maple.eth, with a 7-day voting window and a quorum of 5 percent of circulating supply
Maple DAO governance processEthereum (Solana listed at $0 on DefiLlama); Chainlink CCIP bridges are operational for cross-chain deployment
DefiLlama Maple$2.108b on Ethereum as of 26 Jul 2026; Maple's own About page states AUM of $4.43 billion and $23.96 billion of loans originated
DefiLlama MapleTrail of Bits (2022-08), Spearbit (2022-10), Three Sigma (2022-10) for the December 2022 release; Spearbit via Cantina (2023-06) and Three Sigma (2023-04) for the June 2023 release; most recent syrup contracts audited by Spearbit, Three Sigma and 0xMacro
Maple docs, securityImmunefi, maximum $500,000 for critical smart contract findings (10 percent of funds directly affected, capped at $500,000), minimum $50,000, flat $25,000 for high; live since 25 January 2022, last updated 21 April 2026
Immunefi Maplehttps://docs.maple.finance
Maple docs, securityhttps://github.com/maple-labs, 78 repositories, info@maple.finance
GitHub maple-labsFees annualised $102.25m, revenue annualised $12.64m, holders revenue annualised $3.54m; from November 2025, 25 percent of protocol revenue buys back SYRUP under MIP-019; total raised $17.7m
DefiLlama MapleClosest analogue
a private credit fund with a secured institutional loan book, wrapped in a transferable share (syrupUSDC), plus a money market fund for the Cash Management product.
Underwriting
Maple Finance
Real credit underwriting by a team "led by a team of former bankers" and credit investment professionals, with a Risk Committee that approves or rejects collateral (rsETH was never approved)
TradFi analogue
A private credit manager with an investment committee
Collateral
Maple Finance
secured lending with automatic margin calls, collateral ratios above 150 percent, governed by Master Lending Agreements
TradFi analogue
Secured lending against posted collateral under a master loan agreement with margin maintenance
Settlement
Maple Finance
syrupUSDC is a claim on a loan pool, not on USDC. Maple states plainly that syrupUSDC is not backed by USDC, that its value comes from the loan pool and that there is no affiliation with Circle; liquidity is provided by a dynamic instant liquidity buffer
TradFi analogue
A fund share with an NAV and a liquidity sleeve, redeemable subject to buffer capacity, not a deposit
Rate setting
Maple Finance
Negotiated fixed rates on individual loans; the Cash Management product targets the 1-month T-bill rate less 0.5 percent
TradFi analogue
Bilaterally negotiated private credit pricing; a money market fund benchmarked to bills less fees
Recourse on default
Maple Finance
Collateral liquidation first, then loss to lenders. In December 2022 the Orthogonal Trading default hit remaining LPs in the M11 USDC pool by roughly 80 percent and the M11 WETH pool by 17 percent, with at least $2.5m of recovery expected and M11 Credit considering legal action
TradFi analogue
Loss given default in a private credit fund, with workout and litigation as recovery paths
Regulation
Maple Finance
The Cash Management product uses a Reg D exemption for US accredited investors, holds T-bills and reverse repos through StoneX and carries Relm Insurance cover
TradFi analogue
A Reg D private placement money market style vehicle
Seed
21 Dec 2020$1.3m
Strategic
22 Aug 2023$5m
Total raised per DefiLlama: $17.7m (DefiLlama Maple).
Key milestones: launches, upgrades, exploits and governance events.
Maple launches with a white paper and an MVP; by the August 2023 round it had done over $2 billion of loan originations since inception in May 2021 across 1,500 lenders
StatedEstablishes the permissioned pool delegate model
Source**Orthogonal Trading defaults on $36m of loans**, reported 5 December 2022. $31m sat in the M11 USDC pool, causing roughly an 80 percent hit to remaining LPs, and $5m in the M11 WETH pool, a 17 percent hit. At least $2.5m of recovery was expected and M11 Credit considered legal action; ties were severed
StatedThe defining credit event, and a direct consequence of the discretionary pool-underwriter model that differs from Aave or Compound
SourceV2 release ships after three audits by Trail of Bits (2022-08), Spearbit (2022-10) and Three Sigma (2022-10)
StatedPost-default rebuild of the protocol contracts
SourceSecond release audited by Spearbit via Cantina and Three Sigma
StatedContinued security cadence
SourceDAO governance process formalised on Discourse plus Snapshot at snapshot.org/#/maple.eth with a 5 percent circulating supply quorum
StatedGovernance moves off Discord voting
Source$5m strategic round led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital
StatedCapital to fund the pivot
SourceMPL converts to SYRUP at 1 to 100, and stSYRUP becomes the sole governance token
StatedToken and governance consolidation
SourcesyrupUSDC onboarded to the Aave V3 Core instance with a 150,000,000 supply cap, 73 percent LTV, 78 percent liquidation threshold, 6 percent liquidation bonus and E-Mode at 90/92/4; Maple AUM cited at $2.3b
StatedBlue-chip DeFi acceptance of Maple paper as collateral
SourceAUM up 66 percent to $4.19b, active loans up 45 percent to $1.75b, quarterly revenue $4m
StatedScale inflection
SourceMIP-019 starts routing 25 percent of protocol revenue into SYRUP buybacks
StatedDirect value accrual to the token
SourceSyrup AUM grows over 700 percent to $4.6b+ with zero losses to date, including through the 10 October drawdown
StatedTrack record post-pivot
Source$292m rsETH cross-chain exploit via a LayerZero bridge attack freezes markets across DeFi; Maple is named among affected protocols but states rsETH was never approved by its Risk Committee, unwound indirect exposure on Aave V3 mainnet and a Mantle isolated market within 24 hours, met over $800m of redemptions in 72 hours and ended with "no active lending positions across DeFi"
StatedStress test passed without loss, and evidence the credit process works
SourceMaple reports over $15 billion of overcollateralised loans and more than $100 million of interest paid with zero losses, and a new $100 million BTC-backed loan
StatedPost-pivot loan book scale
SourceOrthogonal Trading defaulted on $36 million of loans, reported on 5 December 2022. Roughly $31m of that sat in the M11 USDC pool, hitting remaining LPs by about 80 percent, and $5m in the M11 WETH pool, a 17 percent hit; at least $2.5m of recovery was expected and M11 Credit considered legal action (The Block). The DeFi Education Fund's explainer ties the outcome to Maple's pool-underwriter discretionary model, which differs from the algorithmic overcollateralisation used by Aave or Compound (DeFi Education Fund).
Yes, materially. The current syrup products provide "fixed-rate, loans to institutional borrowers" with automatic margin calls and a dynamic instant liquidity buffer, rather than the earlier undercollateralised permissioned pools (Maple docs, syrup FAQ, Maple, built for scale). OAK Research reports collateral ratios above 150 percent and zero losses since 2023 (OAK Research overview).
No. Maple states directly that syrupUSDC is not backed by USDC, that its value derives from the loan pool and that there is no affiliation with Circle (Maple docs, syrup FAQ). It is a yield bearing claim on a credit book, and the risk documentation lists Smart Contract Risk, Default Risk and Risk of Loss (Maple docs, syrup risks).
It was named among affected protocols in the $292m LayerZero bridge attack of 20 April 2026 (ChainUp Eye). Maple's own account is that rsETH was never approved by its Risk Committee, that indirect exposure via Aave V3 mainnet and a Mantle was unwound within 24 hours, that it met over $800 million of redemptions in 72 hours and that it ended the episode with "no active lending positions across DeFi" (Maple, Where Maple Stands).
Mixed and deliberate. The Cash Management product is offered to US accredited investors under a Reg D exemption, invests in T-bills and reverse repos via StoneX, carries Relm Insurance cover and targets the 1-month T-bill rate less 0.5 percent (Maple, Cash Management). No incorporation jurisdiction for the operating entity is disclosed in any fetched source, and administrative control over the protocol sits with "The Maple DAO" (Maple docs, syrup risks).
stSYRUP is the sole governance token under MIP-012, and voting requires connecting a wallet with sufficient stSYRUP balance to Snapshot, with a 7-day voting window (MIP-012, Syrup docs, governance and voting). The Snapshot space is snapshot.org/#/maple.eth with a quorum of 5 percent of circulating supply, and Discourse at community.maple.finance carries proposals (Maple DAO governance process).
DefiLlama shows $2.108b of TVL on Ethereum as of 26 July 2026, annualised fees of $102.25m and annualised revenue of $12.64m, with $3.54m of that flowing to holders (DefiLlama Maple). Maple's own About page claims $4.43 billion of AUM and $23.96 billion of loans originated (Maple About).
Aave onboarded syrupUSDC to the V3 Core instance on 27 June 2025 with a 150,000,000 , 73 percent LTV, 78 percent and parameters of 90/92/4 (Aave ARFC). Maple also lists Circle, Sky, Spark, Aave, Chainlink, Bitwise, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, Morpho, Pendle, ether.fi and Uniswap among ecosystem partners (Maple About).
Bull case
Real, audited scale: $2.108b of TVL as of 26 July 2026 with $102.25m of annualised fees and $12.64m of annualised revenue, the largest revenue base of any entity in this set (DefiLlama Maple).
DefiLlama MapleThe post-pivot loan book has performed: over $15 billion of overcollateralised loans and more than $100 million of interest with zero losses, including through the April 2026 stress when it met over $800 million of redemptions in 72 hours (Maple, Where Maple Stands).
Maple, Where Maple StandsInstitutional acceptance is documented, not aspirational: Aave onboarded syrupUSDC to V3 Core on 27 June 2025 at a 150,000,000 supply cap and 73 percent LTV after joint ACI, LlamaRisk and Chaos Labs review (Aave ARFC).
Aave ARFCToken value accrual is live, with 25 percent of protocol revenue buying back SYRUP from November 2025 under MIP-019 and $3.54m of annualised holders revenue (DefiLlama Maple).
DefiLlama MapleBear case
Maple has already lost lender money once. The December 2022 Orthogonal Trading default on $36m produced roughly an 80 percent hit to remaining LPs in the M11 USDC pool and a 17 percent hit in the M11 WETH pool (The Block).
The BlockThe structural criticism from that event has not gone away: Maple's discretionary pool-underwriter model concentrates judgement in a small group, unlike the algorithmic overcollateralisation of Aave or Compound (DeFi Education Fund).
DeFi Education FundRedemption is buffer-dependent, not guaranteed. syrupUSDC is explicitly not backed by USDC and relies on a "dynamic instant liquidity buffer", which is exactly the mechanism that would be tested in a correlated run (Maple docs, syrup FAQ, Maple, built for scale).
Maple docs, syrup FAQRegulatory surface is real and only partly addressed: the Cash Management product depends on a Reg D exemption limited to US accredited investors, while no incorporation jurisdiction is disclosed for the operating entity and administrative control rests with "The Maple DAO" (Maple, Cash Management, Maple docs, syrup risks).
Maple, Cash ManagementExternal publications on this protocol: risk assessments, analyst reports, audits and post mortems.
Quantifies the default: $31m in the M11 USDC pool, roughly 80 percent LP loss, $5m and 17 percent in the WETH pool (older source)
Attributes the loss to the pool-underwriter discretionary model rather than to algorithmic overcollateralisation (older source)
Sets a 150,000,000 supply cap, 73 percent LTV, 78 percent LT, 6 percent LB and 90/92/4 E-Mode against $2.3b of Maple AUM
syrupUSDC around $2.8b and TVL around $3.89b with collateral ratios above 150 percent and zero losses since 2023
AUM up 66 percent to $4.19b, active loans up 45 percent to $1.75b, $4m quarterly revenue
$1B+ TVL, $450M+ loans outstanding, $8M+ annualised revenue against a $150-200M FDV
Trail of Bits, Spearbit and Three Sigma on the December 2022 release; Cantina and Three Sigma on the June 2023 release
Consolidates governance rights into staked SYRUP
$2.108b TVL, $102.25m annualised fees, $12.64m annualised revenue, $17.7m total raised
