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Maple Finance secures SEC exemption for on-chain Treasury Pools

Launched in April, the USDC Pools were previously accessible only to non-U.S. accredited investors.

Blockchain institutional capital marketplace Maple Finance has secured an exemption from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer its one-month U.S. Treasury yields to accredited investors in the U.S.

Before the Aug. 9 announcement, the Maple Finance Treasury Pools were only available to accredited investors outside the U.S. Through the SEC Regulation D Rule 506(c) Exemption, a firm may offer investment products, without prior registration, to individual investors in the U.S. with a net worth exceeding $1 million excluding the value of their primary residence, or with an annual income exceeding $200,000 per year ($300,000 if their spouse is included). A firm may also sell such investment products to accredited U.S. entities, such as banks. 

Data from Maple Finance show that over 21 million USD Coin (USDC) have been deposited into its Treasury Pool, which currently holds an annualized yield of 4.76%. No inbound or outbound fees are charged, except for an annualized management fee of 0.50% taken from the yield. 

Developers wrote that "onboarding takes 15 minutes and Lenders can download monthly interest statements anytime." The website states that withdrawals are processed within a maximum of 48 hours. Room40 Capital, an institutional crypto hedge fund founded in 2022, is currently the sole borrower from the pool.

Room40 Capital said the "proceeds will be used to purchase and hold short-dated U.S. Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. Treasury bills only." The firm has made 46 payments thus far since the Treasury Pools launched in April, with no late payments.

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Maple Finance announces direct lending to fill the void left by BlockFi, Celsius

The lending platform’s team will begin offering loans directly to some borrowers instead of relying solely on pool delegates to provide capital.

Web3 lending platform Maple Finance has announced the launch of a direct lending program, according to a June 28 fact sheet from the platform’s development team. The program is intended to replace services previously provided by Celsius, BlockFi and other now-bankrupt lenders.

The first lending pool will be available sometime in July, the company stated.

Maple Finance is a blockchain institutional capital marketplace. It is used by Web3 businesses to obtain loans, allowing them to finance product launches or expansions. In the past, Maple relied on credit professionals, called “pool delegates,” to provide capital for these loans. For example, Celsius used Maple to create a Wrapped Ether (WETH) lending pool in February 2022.

But in the bear market of mid-to-late 2022, some of the largest Web3 lenders went bankrupt. Celsius closed up shop in July, BlockFi went belly up in November, and Genesis declared bankruptcy in January.

In the June 28 announcement, the Maple team stated that it will now fulfill the role of a lender on the platform in some cases. Using its own credit underwriting expertise, it will provide capital from institutional allocators to creditworthy borrowers. This means that if a potential borrower can’t get loans from one of the other providers, the person may be able to obtain them from Maple through its Maple Direct program.

Related: Celsius seeks to convert alts to Bitcoin and Ether under reorganization plan

According to the Maple team, this new program is necessary because major Web3 lenders have “exited the space” and traditional lenders such as banks “do not have the necessary focus or expertise to underwrite to the innovative group” of Web3 technology firms.

The team said it will launch its first direct lending pool sometime in July, which will focus on lending to “infrastructure, asset management, [and] liquidity providers.” The team has invited capital allocators to earn yield through the program, saying that it suits the needs of “Crypto Funds, DAOs, VCs, HNWI, Yield Aggregators, [and] Family Offices” looking for a return on their investments.

Maple will also “continue to expand its existing services,” the announcement said, implying that Maple Direct will not replace the current platform that features competing lenders.

Lenders at Maple Finance suffered from the FTX and Alameda Research bankruptcies in November. Borrower Aurus Global missed one of its payments as a result of fallout from these events, and Maple also cut ties with borrower Orthogonal Trading over what it saw as misrepresentations. But the platform bounced back quickly, launching version 2.0 of its software in December.

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DeFi Could Erupt 100X in Next 10 Years As Most of World Financial System Gets Replaced, Says Maple Finance CEO

DeFi Could Erupt 100X in Next 10 Years As Most of World Financial System Gets Replaced, Says Maple Finance CEO

Maple Finance CEO Sidney Powell says that it could take just a decade for decentralized finance (DeFi) to explode 100x in size while replacing traditional finance (TradFi) companies along the way. In a new interview with Scott Melker, the co-founder of the DeFi lending platform says that the decentralized finance sector could grow exponentially by […]

The post DeFi Could Erupt 100X in Next 10 Years As Most of World Financial System Gets Replaced, Says Maple Finance CEO appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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Maple Finance launches pool for US Treasury yields

The so-called on-chain management protocol gives non-U.S. accredited investors access to one-month U.S. Treasury yields.

Crypto lender Maple Finance has rolled out a United States Treasury pool for non-U.S. accredited investors and entities.

According to an Apr. 19 post, Maple Finance has launched a new Cash Management Pool for institutional Web3 investors to access U.S. Treasury Bills directly. The offering is not available to U.S. individuals or entities. The pool will source yield from one-month U.S. Treasury bills and reverse purchase agreements, less fees, to lenders, with crypto hedge fund Room40 Capital serving as the sole borrower via a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Maple developers wrote:

"Whilst there are a handful of “risk-free rate” offerings on-chain, they do not provide the peace of mind necessary to attract hard earned treasury funds. Counterparty risk is either too high, assets too illiquid, too complicated with ETFs, or rates between 1-2% too low for the level of smart contract risk."

Maple claims that all pool assets are held in a standalone SPV "custodied by a regulated prime broker and Lenders have full recourse over all assets." The firm also says that onboarding "takes between 10-15 minutes to complete," and that interest accrues immediately from the time of deposit with no lock-up period.

"Lenders have a real-time view into the borrower’s portfolio of assets held with a regulated broker and interest statements can be downloaded at any time."

Maple Finance is currently available on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, with around $1.9 billion in loans originated since inception. U.S. Treasury bills are classified as securities. As a result, derivatives containing such instruments as the underlying asset cannot be sold to U.S. investors without registration or an exemption from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Maple Finance 2.0 overhaul aimed at speeding up the defaulting process

The overhaul of the protocol, dubbed "Maple 2.0" comes only weeks after the platform saw two major defaults on the back of FTX's collapse.

Maple Finance is a decentralized credit market powered by blockchain technology. Instead of requiring overcollaterlization of loans, it instead allows managers, called “Pool Delegates” to issue loans from its lending pools based on a set of risk-management criteria, according to the protocol’s documents.

However, in the wake of FTX's collap, the platform experienced two major defaults from borrowers on the platform.

On Dec. 1, algo trading and market maker Auros Global missed its payment of 2,400 Wrapped Ether (wETH) following Alameda’s demise, causing the loan to go into a five-day grace period. That grace period has since passed, and the borrower has begun to incur penalties, according to a post by lender M11Credit.

Days later on Dec. 6, crypto hedge fund Orthogonal Trading admitted to having been “severely impacted by the collapse of FTX,” prompting M11Credit to issue a notice of default on the funds $36 million of loans.

The new protocol overhaul, dubbed “Maple 2.0” will upgrade its smart contracts so that defaults such as these can be more quickly handled and settled by Pool Delegate.

Previously, loans could only be put into default if a borrower missed a payment and the grace period passed. This meant that collateral could not be liquidated even if the borrower admitted in advance that they couldn’t make payments.

In a blog post explaining the platform’s new features, Maple said that in the instance that a borrower meets a condition of default, a Pool Delegate will now be able to declare an early default, which will bring the loan payable immediately.

Furthermore, when a borrower doesn’t pay within the grace period, the Delegate can liquidate the loan — meaning all lenders within the pool can realize a loss immediately while recovery is pursued, it added.

Related: Politicians attack crypto, demand regulation at FTX congressional hearing

The new version of Maple Finance also includes features meant to make quality of life changes to the lending platform.

Withdrawals can now be scheduled and prorated, and lenders can request withdrawals at any time, whereas previously they needed to wait a minimum of 30 days to withdraw after their deposit.

Pool delegates now provide First Loss Capital, making them the first to suffer in the event of a default. The Maple team believes this will more closely align pool delegates' interests with the interest of lenders.

It also introducing automatic compounding of interest so that interest earned is automatically reinvested into the pool, removing the administration of redepositing.

Other changes include the adoption of ERC-4626 standards, allowing for more decentralized finance (DeFi) integrations and partnerships, as well as improved data and dashboards.

Crypto lending platform Maple Finance has unveiled a major protocol upgrade aimed at making defaults and liquidation procedures less cumbersome in the wake of recent defaults. 

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Crypto trading firm Auros Global misses DeFi payment due to FTX contagion

Auros is an algorithmic trading and market-making firm that provides liquidity for exchanges and token projects.

Crypto trading firm Auros Global appears to be suffering from FTX contagion after missing a principal repayment on a 2,400 Wrapped Ether (wETH) decentralized finance (DeFi) loan.

Institutional credit underwriter M11 Credit, which manages liquidity pools on Maple Finance, told its followers in a Nov. 30 Twitter thread that the Auros had missed a principal payment on the 2,400 wETH loan, which is worth in total around $3 million.

M11 Credit suggests that it is always in close communication with its borrowers, particularly after events in the last month, and said Auros is experiencing a “short-term liquidity issue as a result of the FTX insolvency.”

While Auros, an algorithmic trading and market-making firm, has not yet addressed the statement by M11 Credit, the thread has been retweeted by Maple Finance itself.

M11 Credit has also stressed that the missed payment does not mean the loan is in default. Instead, the missed payment has triggered a “5-day grace period as per the smart contracts.”

This implies that Auros has until Dec. 5 to make the late payment before it will be declared as being in default.

According to an official Maple Finance Youtube video, if a default occurs, it could result in the borrower’s collateral being liquidated and/or staked maple tokens and USDC on the platform being used to cover any shortfalls to lenders. Enforcement action could also be pursued through New York courts.

M11 credit claims that it is “working with Auros to provide a joint statement that provides further information to lenders.”

Cointelegraph has reached out to both M11 Credit and Auros for comment, but did not receive a reply before time of publication.

Crypto exchange FTX announced on Nov. 11 that it would file for Bankruptcy after having suffered a liquidity crisis and being unable to honor withdrawals. The resulting contagion has spread to numerous other firms. BlockFi declared bankruptcy on November 28.

Galois Capital and New Huo Technology have lost millions of dollars from FTX’s collapse, and Nestcoin has had to lay off workers because of its exposure to the failed exchange.

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Maple Finance Lending Pool Delegate ‘Identified a Number of Key Weaknesses’ Tied to FTX’s Alameda Research

Maple Finance Lending Pool Delegate ‘Identified a Number of Key Weaknesses’ Tied to FTX’s Alameda ResearchAccording to a report from Orthogonal Credit, a delegate of Maple Finance’s lending pools, the firm decided “earlier this year” not to lend to Alameda Research, FTX’s quantitative trading firm. Orthogonal said through “due diligence” it “identified a number of key weaknesses” associated with Alameda. Orthogonal Credit Found ‘Key Weaknesses’ Tied to FTX’s Alameda Research […]

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Maple Finance CEO: Separating risk from lending saved DeFi from market crash

DeFi crypto lending has operated as intended through the crypto winter because transparency kept it in line and business activities were siloed, according to Maple Finance’s Sid Powell.

Maple Finance co-founder and CEO Sid Powell says that transparency has been the saving grace of decentralized finance (DeFi) amid the prolonged crypto market slump.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on the sidelines of Converge22 conference in San Francisco, Powell noted that throughout the crypto winter, DeFi has continued to operate as intended while centralized finance (CeFi) has become “pretty inactive.”

Powell suggested that during the market crash, CeFi lenders hadn't properly "battle-tested" and weren’t “prepared to liquidate clients," wanting to maintain client relationships.

“As the price of Bitcoin was tumbling, they didn’t want to be sending out margin call letters or email hundreds of clients because they wanted to maintain client relationships,” Powell explained.

“So you give them a little bit longer, a little bit longer — well, suddenly a lot of these loans are underwater, particularly the ones that started on or [were] undercollateralized.”

He notes that where CeFi firms are still lending, “they’re doing so on a 1:1 collateralization.”

On the other hand, “DeFi is much more transparent,” he explained. In overcollateralized DeFi models, “people just got liquidated as BTC and ETH dropped. That happened automatically.”

“In DeFi you can’t get away with letting one borrower be half of a lending pool because people see that and they question the risk management there.”

“All of the loans are visible, so you had to be much more careful of who you underwrote and how you underwrote them,” Powell said.

Powell also added that CeFi businesses were diversified with trading and prime brokerage, which they thought was a strength, but all of their business lines impacted each other:

“But if a CeFi lender ran a pool on Maple, that pool would not be affected by what is happening in the trading part of that business [...] It’s restricted and siloed to just the lending activity.”

Related: Decentralized finance faces multiple barriers to mainstream adoption

Maple is a decentralized finance credit platform that claims to hold 50% of the institutional crypto lending market as measured by total loans outstanding and has issued close to $1.8 billion worth of loans since its inception in May 2021.

The Maple loan book “seriously outperformed CeFi,” Powell said, “with only one $10 million default on $1.8 billion of loans originated and 900 [loans] outstanding at the time.”

Powell described Maple Finance as “a venue for people to run lending pools,” but said there has been a reduced appetite to lend since June, causing prices for lending to go up from 8-9% to 10-13%, and thus crypto whales and yield aggregators have started to allocate again to lending platforms like Maple.

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Maple Finance launches $300M lending pool for Bitcoin mining firms

The institutional lending platform has facilitated $1.8 billion worth of digital currency loans since May 2021.

On Tuesday, institutional crypto lending protocol Maple Finance and its delegate Icebreaker Finance announced that they would provide up to $300 million worth of secured debt financing to public and private Bitcoin mining firms. Qualified entities meeting treasury management and power strategies management standards located throughout North America, as well as those in Australia, can apply for funding.

On the other hand, the venture seeks to deliver risk-adjusted returns in the low teen percentages (up to 13% per annum) to investors and capital allocators. The pool is only open to accredited investors who meet substantial income and/or net worth qualifications within a jurisdiction. In the United Stat, among many criteria, this means having an annual pre-tax income of over $200,000 ($300,000 with a spouse) or having a liquid net worth of more than $1 million.

As told by Maple Finance, underlying loans in the new lending pool would last for 12 to 18 months with interest rates of up to 20%. The loan would be secured by physical and intellectual assets of the borrower, possibly including that of Bitcoin mining rigs. Regarding the development, Sidney Powell, CEO and co-founder of Maple Finance, stated:

"Recent market headwinds have caused lenders to pull back, while traditional financing vehicles have been slower to engage this sector. Miners play an essential role in growing the crypto ecosystem and local economies, and we are proud to extend a new financing vehicle to direct capital where it is needed the most."

Maple currently holds 50% of the institutional crypto lending market as measured by total loans outstanding. At the time of publication, liquidity pools on Maple have issued close to $1.8 billion worth of loans since its inception in May 2021.

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