Maple (SYRUP): Q2 2025 Activity Report

This market report was prepared in collaboration with our partners GLC Research.

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Key Takeaways

• A clear vision: Maple carried out a rebranding to clarify the protocol’s strategic direction: becoming an onchain asset manager.
• AUM growth: Maple’s assets under management surged by +227%, from $800 million to $2.59 billion.
• Revenue Momentum: Quarterly revenue grew +145%, marking Maple’s 6th consecutive ATH and demonstrating strong monetization of lending activity.
• SyrupUSDC Outperformance: The core product continued to outperform DeFi yield peers on risk-adjusted bases.
• Successful Solana Expansion: SyrupUSDC’s launch on Solana brought $70M in new deposits, quickly establishing it as a key yield-bearing dollar asset on the network.
• Major milestone: Maple has surpassed BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, becoming the largest on-chain asset manager.

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Context About Maple

Launched in 2021, Maple is an on-chain asset manager, offering secure yield solutions for both institutional players and individual users.

During the second quarter of 2025, Maple underwent a rebranding and consolidated all its products under a single unified brand, better reflecting the protocol’s identity and strategic focus that has been taking shape over the past several months.

Maple users can access products through two main channels:

• Institutional: Access requires KYC and a dedicated onboarding process (legal documentation, due diligence, etc.). The flagship products include Blue Chip Secured Lending, High Yield Secured Lending, and BTC Yield.
• Individual: Permissionless access to institutional-grade yield through SyrupUSDC and lstBTC soon.

With a total of $7.8 billion in active loans and, most importantly, $2.59 billion in assets under management (AuM), Maple is now the leading on-chain asset manager, surpassing BlackRock’s BUIDL fund.

→ Read our full presentation of Maple (SYRUP):

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Key Metrics Q2 Performance

TVL/AuM & Active Loans Growth

With Q2 now officially behind us, it's time to assess Maple's performance over the past three months. As an on-chain asset manager with lending as a core business vertical, the most critical metrics to assess are TVL and Active Loans.

The results speak for themselves:

• TVL/AuM: +227% (from $800M to $2.59B)
• Active Loans: +180% (from $332M to $926M)

These are exceptional results, especially considering that Maple’s first quarter had already delivered impressive growth of +56% and +48% in these same metrics. At the time of writing, Maple has become the leading on-chain asset manager.

However, behind these strong performances, it’s important to highlight a point of concern that we had already mentioned in the previous report and which has become more pronounced this quarter.

TVL has surged rapidly, driven by a wave of SyrupUSDC integrations across the DeFi ecosystem. However, the growth in active loans has not kept pace. This widening gap is worth considering, as the yield generated by SyrupUSDC depends directly on repayments from institutional borrowers.

As a result, SyrupUSDC’s yield declined over the course of the quarter. In our view, Maple’s top priority for Q3 2025 should be to reduce this gap.

This point is discussed in detail in our interview with Martin de Rijke, Head of Growth at Maple, at the end of this report. It will also be a central topic in the next edition of this report for Q3 2025.

Revenue Growth and Monetization Rate

Maple just posted a 145% increase in quarterly revenue compared to Q1, reaching $2.9M in Q2. This marks the sixth consecutive all-time high in quarterly revenue since Q1 2024, highlighting Maple’s strong momentum and consistency over the past several months.

In our Q1 report, we pointed out that Maple’s revenue growth was lagging behind the growth in TVL/AuM. The reality is that, like most companies in the sector, Maple’s revenue is tied to market conditions. Revenue is primarily generated through two channels:

• fees collected as a percentage of interest paid by borrowers and,
• yield earned on collateral deployed across DeFi protocols.

This setup means that during periods of market expansion when asset prices rise and the cost of capital increases due to growing borrowing demand Maple’s revenue naturally benefits.

In Q1, market conditions were a bit rough amid uncertainty surrounding Liberation Day, which weighed on revenue performance. However, with Bitcoin reaching all-time highs, the broader market environment improved.

To better illustrate this, we examine the Annualized Revenue/TVL (R/TVL) ratio, calculated by annualizing each month's revenue figures. Since January 2024, the average monetization ratio has been 0.84%.

As of the end of Q2, Maple’s monetization ratio stands at approximately 0.60%, which is still below historical averages but higher compared to Q1. This is primarily attributed to the fact that TVL growth is currently outpacing the growth in loan originations. A key driver behind this trend is the rapid expansion of SyrupUSDC(T), which has seen increased composability across DeFi protocols, attracting significant capital inflows on the demand side.

Given that revenue is largely generated from interest payments on originated loans and yield on deployed collateral, a higher TVL growth relative to loans naturally results in a lower monetization ratio. Currently, Maple’s strategic focus is on stimulating loan demand and the recentlyintroduced facility with Cantor Fitzgerald signals good progress toward attracting more institutional clients.

While Maple delivered exceptional growth in Q2, it is important to recognize the structural differences between attracting capital and originating loans. Onboarding lenders in a permissionless environment can be achieved quickly, whereas originating loans particularly with institutional partners requires extensive negotiation, due diligence, and risk assessment. As such, a short-term lag between supply growth and loan deployment is both natural and expected.

Monitoring the pace of loan origination will be a key metric in the coming quarters as Maple seeks to convert strong TVL/AuM growth into sustainable revenue generation.

Despite the imbalance between TVL and loan growth, Maple achieved a new all-time high in monthly revenue at the end of Q2, reaching $1.3 million, a 200% increase YTD.

Crucially, demand for lending capital remains robust. SyrupUSDC continues to offer competitive yields, maintaining Maple’s appeal to liquidity providers. As long as attractive returns persist on the supply side, capital inflows are unlikely to be a limiting factor.

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SyrupUSDC Relative Performance

Maple’s core product, SyrupUSDC, delivered strong performance once again this quarter. When comparing the returns of investing an equal dollar amount at the beginning of Q2, SyrupUSDC clearly outperformed its peers, delivering a 1.6% return over the period. For comparison, Aave’s yield, often used as a benchmark, returned 0.85%, while Ethena delivered 1.29%.

Despite the fact that loan growth lagged behind TVL growth, which has put some downward pressure on yields, SyrupUSDC still outperformed the competition this quarter. Notably, it also outperformed in Q1, demonstrating consistent relative strength.

Yield Stability and Risk-Adjusted Performance

This quarter showed a slight downward trend in USDC yields, as illustrated in the graph. While SyrupUSDC’s yield did decline modestly, it remained remarkably stable throughout the period. The product delivered more consistent returns compared to other DeFi yield options, with a standard deviation of just 0.27% over the quarter. In contrast, Aave’s yield showed a standard deviation of 0.64%, and Ethena’s was more volatile at 1.20%.

This level of predictability and consistency is key. A smoother return profile, combined with a higher overall yield, translates into stronger risk-adjusted performance. These qualities help explain why SyrupUSDC has seen such rapid adoption since the beginning of the year. It is, quite simply, a superior yield-bearing dollar compared to currently available options in DeFi.

SyrupUSDC Risk Premium is decreasing

This is one of the most interesting point of the quarter. We can clearly observe a declining risk premium for SyrupUSDC relative to Aave, which is widely regarded as the benchmark for the safest USDC yield. This suggests that market confidence in Maple is growing, with users increasingly willing to accept a lower yield in exchange for what they now perceive as lower risk.

Several factors help explain this shift in sentiment:

• Institutional engagements with firms like Bitwise and Cantor signal strong external validation. These deals involve deep due diligence by top-tier counterparties, which meaningfully reduces perceived risk for lenders.
• Flawless risk management during multiple liquidation events. Maple has handled these scenarios with no disruptions, reinforcing trust in the platform’s operational resilience.
• Instant liquidity on SyrupUSDC, allowing users to withdraw funds quickly and efficiently. This liquidity feature materially reduces the perceived risk associated with locking capital.
• Brand momentum. Maple’s visibility and recognition have grown significantly this quarter, bringing greater awareness and confidence from both retail and institutional participants.

Other factors may also contribute to the decreasing risk premium, but these are the key drivers. For further insight, don’t miss Martin’s perspective, Head of Growth at Maple, at the end of this report.

This market report was prepared in collaboration with our partners GLC Research.

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Q2 Product Performance

As an on-chain asset manager, Maple’s objective is to develop a comprehensive suite of on-chain products that can support a wide range of assets, both those already available and those expected to be tokenized in the near future.

Currently, Maple’s offerings are centered around three core products: Maple Institutional, the BTC Yield product, and SyrupUSDC.

Let’s take a closer look at the individual performance of each product and the key drivers behind them.

As you can see, this quarter’s growth is primarily driven by SyrupUSDC(T), Maple’s yielding dollar, which contributed $1.5B in AuM. The other two products saw more modest performance, with $100M in growth for the BTC Yield product and $200M for Maple Institutional.

SyrupUSDC

SyrupUSDC experienced exceptional growth in Q2, becoming the third-largest yield-bearing stablecoin with a market cap of $903M by quarter-end. This momentum was fueled by integrations with leading DeFi protocols on Ethereum, a major allocation from Spark, and the successful launch on Solana.

SyrupUSDC in DeFi Markets

Its strong adoption across protocols such as Pendle, Morpho, and Euler contributed significantly to its growth, alongside a substantial allocation from Spark:

• Morpho: +$64.2M (from $9.5M to $73.7M)
• Pendle: +$103.5M (from $14.2M to $117.7M)
• Spark: +$362.4M (from $22.9M to $385.3M)

Together, these represent over 70% of SyrupUSDC’s supply actively deployed in DeFi, with 9% on Morpho, 17% on Pendle, and 48% on Spark.

Additionally, ARFC proposal is live in Aave governance to onboard SyrupUSDC as a collateral asset on Aave V3, a potential catalyst for further growth in Q3.

SyrupUSDC as a cross-chain asset

Since June 5, 2025, SyrupUSDC has been available and mintable on Solana through a partnership with Chainlink. This launch played a significant role in SyrupUSDC’s impressive Q2 growth.

Here are the key stats on Solana since launch:

• Market Cap: $70M → accounting for 7.3% of SyrupUSDC’s total market cap ($954M)
• Holders: 760 → approximately 25% of total SyrupUSDC holders (2,972)
• Trading Volume: $130M

The partnership with Kamino has been the primary driver of SyrupUSDC’s success on Solana. In just a few weeks, $47M worth of SyrupUSDC has been supplied on Kamino Markets, representing 67% of the total SyrupUSDC supply on Solana.

This makes SyrupUSDC one of the most actively utilized assets on the network, particularly through Kamino Multiply, where users can deposit SyrupUSDC as collateral and borrow against it.

The process can be looped up to 5x, enabling users to earn a maximum APY of 16%, which is 150% higher than SyrupUSDC’s base APY, currently at 6.4%.

BTC Yield Product

The BTC Yield Product is currently lagging behind expectations. Launched in Q1 in partnership with Core, the product initially saw strong momentum, quickly reaching over $180M in AUM, but has since declined to around $140M, with inflows slowing considerably.

That said, we still see strong potential in this product. It offers approximately 5% yield on BTC, paid directly in BTC, with institutional-grade security and assets remaining under qualified custody at all times.

→ Read our full presentation of Maple’s Bitcoin Yield Product :

Currently, access to the product is limited to accredited investors and institutions. However, in the coming months, Maple will launch lstBTC, a liquid version of the product that will be integrated into DeFi, similar to SyrupUSDC.

In our view, this upcoming upgrade could be the catalyst that helps the product progress toward its $1.5B target by year-end.

Maple Institutional

Maple Institutional is Maple’s pillar dedicated to enabling institutions to access overcollateralized lending. It currently comprises two offerings: "High Yield" and "Blue Chip." Both products are performing well and continue to grow steadily.

With $543M in AUM as of now, Maple Institutional has already surpassed 50% of its $1B year-end target, marking solid progress toward its goal.

This quarter, Maple introduced new collateral types within the "High Yield" product, including weETH from Ether.Fi, Hype and mSOL, expanding its range of supported assets.

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SYRUP Token Analysis: Holders, Volume, and Price Trends

As we’ve just seen, Maple experienced impressive growth in both protocol metrics and revenue during Q2. Now, it’s time to assess whether this momentum has also translated into performance for its native token, SYRUP.

Here’s how SYRUP-related metrics evolved during Q2:

• Token holders: +153% (from 4,100 → 10,400)
• Weekly trading volume: +2,050% (from ≃$20M → ≃$430M)
• SYRUP price: +403% (from $0.12 → $0.61)

As you can see, token-related metrics experienced substantial growth during the second quarter. Over this period, SYRUP underwent a significant repricing, aligning more closely with the “fair value” we had identified in our Relative Valuation published on May 19.

Naturally, this repricing reflects Maple’s strong performance since January and the consistent efforts of the team to deliver on their objectives. However, another key factor also contributed to the surge in SYRUP’s metrics.

Liquidity is no longer a concern

On May 6, Binance unexpectedly listed SYRUP, which was soon followed by listings on Bitget and HTX.

These listings addressed one of SYRUP’s most critical limitations: restricted liquidity and accessibility, which had been a barrier for many investors. The impact was immediate. Average weekly trading volume soared from ≃$20M in Q1 to ≃$430M in Q2, with more than 6,300 new holders joining in the quarter alone.

SYRUP Outperformed The Market

It is now time to compare this performance with that of Maple’s peers.

To recap, in Q1 SYRUP declined by 22%, primarily due to broad market weakness. BTC dropped 12% over the same period, and Maple’s peers fell by an average of 52%. Despite this context, SYRUP had already shown signs of relative strength.

Q2 proved to be a more favorable quarter for risk assets, supported by improved market conditions, notably, a 90-day suspension of Trump tariffs. BTC responded positively, posting a 26% gain over the period:

• AAVE: +74%
• SKY: +56%
• PENDLE: +13%
• ONDO: +1%
• ENA: -17%

Regardless of broader market conditions, Maple has now outperformed its peers for two consecutive quarters. We’ll revisit this comparison in Q3.

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Important Announcements

Building on the momentum of a strong first quarter in 2025, Maple confirmed its status as a leading on-chain asset management protocol during Q2 2025. Numerous partnership announcements and product expansions into new ecosystems further accelerated Maple’s development. Here’s a full list of key highlights.

• Maple rebranding and product consolidation under a single brand

On May 21, 2025, Maple announced a full rebranding, including a new logo, a simplified user interface, and the consolidation of all its products under one unified brand. Gone is “syrup.fi”, all users and products are now found on the “app.maple.finance” interface.

Beyond a simple rebranding, this change marks the final stage of an identity shift that Maple began over the past several months. Long seen as merely a lending platform, Maple now fully embraces its new positioning as an on-chain asset manager.

• AUM record: Becoming the #1 on-chain asset manager

On April 16, 2025, Maple hit a symbolic milestone by reaching $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). Less than two months later, on June 7, 2025, Maple surpassed the $2 billion AUM mark.

Ultimately, Maple closed Q2 2025 with approximately $2.59 billion in AUM, positioning it as the leading protocol in terms of assets under management, ahead of BlackRock’s BUIDL fund.

• Strategic partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald

On May 27, 2025, Maple announced a historic agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald, one of Wall Street’s largest institutions. One year after it was first announced, Cantor launched a Bitcoin-backed credit program for institutional clients, allowing them to use BTC as collateral to borrow without having to sell their assets. In total, Cantor plans to deploy a $2 billion program through Maple.

“This facility allows Maple to accelerate its growth as a leader in institutional on-chain credit,” commented Sidney Powell, CEO of Maple Finance.

• Launch of SyrupUSDC on Solana

On June 5, 2025, Maple announced the deployment of SyrupUSDC on the Solana blockchain in collaboration with major players including Chainlink, Kamino, Paxos, Jito, and Orca. Maple’s flagship product is now natively available on one of the industry’s most important ecosystems, thanks to a partnership with Chainlink.

SyrupUSDC is directly integrated within Kamino, Solana’s leading lending protocol. At launch, a $500,000 incentive program was introduced to support product growth, while $30 million was deployed on Kamino Swap to provide liquidity for buying and looping SyrupUSDC on the protocol.

At the time of writing this report, SyrupUSDC’s TVL on Solana stands at $87 million.

• Collateral diversification: HYPE, stETH, and mSOL

Throughout Q2 2025, Maple announced the listing of new assets accepted as collateral for institutional borrowers, including: HYPE, stETH, and mSOL.

First, Maple accepted Marinade’s mSOL as collateral, allowing institutional borrowers to access USDC and USDT liquidity without having to unstake their SOL. Then, Maple partnered with Lido to enable the same option for institutional holders of stETH and with Etherfi to offer the same services on weETH.

Finally, given the strong growth of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token and the increasing demand from professional actors to integrate it into their treasuries, Maple announced that HYPE is now accepted as collateral for customized and overcollateralized loans.

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Interview: Maple’s Q2 Growth Strategy & Institutional Focus

As we did in the Q1 report, we decided to interview Martin de Rijke, Head of Growth at Maple, to gain his perspective on Maple’s performance in Q2 and to address some of our considerations.

This provides readers with an internal point of view on the situation, directly from a member of the team.

Here are the key takeaways from our conversation:

• The widening gap between TVL and Active Loans

We decided to begin this discussion with one of the key concerns raised in this report: the widening gap between TVL and active loans.

Martin provided several insights to help us understand this dynamic. First, he explained that it is natural for the gap to have increased, as SyrupUSDC has evolved into an instant liquidity product. Maple must now maintain a liquidity buffer (currently $204 million) to support immediate withdrawals. This buffer represents a significant portion of the TVL that cannot be lent out to borrowers.

He also pointed out a structural distinction to consider. A $100 million deposit into SyrupUSDC, such as the recent one from Spark, can be executed with a single click, whereas closing a loan is a much more complex and time-consuming process that requires thorough due diligence.

That said, Martin emphasized that this gap is not inherently problematic. Maple now has the capital needed to support large-scale borrowing, which is a much stronger position than before, when the platform lacked sufficient lenders to meet borrower demand. In fact, several new borrowers are currently in the process of being onboarded.

• SyrupUSDC Yield decreasing

This widening gap also leads to a second consequence: the yield on SyrupUSDC is decreasing, as deposits are growing faster than the number of loans generating yield.

According to Martin, this decline is perfectly normal and is primarily due to the reduction of the risk premium. When a new yield-bearing asset is launched, it typically offers a higher yield to compensate for the early uncertainty. As the asset matures and gains credibility and trust, the risk premium naturally decreases, which leads to lower yields.

In his view, the most relevant metric to track is not necessarily the yield itself, but the level of deposits in SyrupUSDC. These deposits continue to increase, indicating that users are still satisfied with the yield being offered.

Martin believes the base yield of SyrupUSDC will likely continue to decline as the asset matures, but this is not a problem. The beauty of DeFi is that it solves this naturally. Over time, users will split into different profiles: some will be satisfied with the base yield, while others seeking higher returns will have dozens of options to do so through SyrupUSDC's DeFi integrations.

• Martin’s perspective on Q2 results

To conclude, we asked Martin how he felt about Maple’s performance this quarter.

He responded that they successfully grew SyrupUSDC by 6x over the course of the quarter, secured major partnerships, achieved listings on top-tier exchanges, and saw SYRUP token increase fivefold in value.

Naturally, he is proud of this performance and of the team behind it. However, he emphasized that this success did not happen because they suddenly started doing everything right. Rather, the achievements of this quarter are the result of long-term, consistent effort of building relationships, earning trust, and strengthening the brand over time.

That said, a strong quarter is not a reason to become complacent. As Martin aptly put it, “When you win the Champions League, you want to win the next ones.”

Their ambition is to build a lasting legacy, a protocol designed to stand the test of time and remain relevant for decades to come.

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Maple Finance 2025 Roadmap

At the end of Q1, Maple publicly announced its year-end objectives.

With a TVL of $1B at the time, the team set an ambitious target of reaching $4B by the end of the year. While that initially seemed ambitious, Maple has already reached $2.5B by the end of Q2 and the goal now appears well within reach.

Here’s a breakdown of the year-end targets by product:

• $1.5B for SyrupUSDC → Target achieved ($1.7B as of Q2)
• $1B from Maple Institutional → Currently at $540M
• $1.5B from the BTC yield product → Currently at $146M

As you can see, SyrupUSDC has already exceeded its year-end target and continues to grow rapidly. The focus for Maple should now shift toward scaling the two remaining products.

Although the BTC yield product is currently lagging behind, as outlined in the product section, it is expected to gain momentum in the coming months with the launch of a liquid version, which is likely to follow the growth trajectory of SyrupUSDC.

We’ll revisit these figures in the next quarterly update.

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Final Thoughts

Maple’s Q2 2025 performance reaffirms its status as the leading on-chain asset manager. With TVL up 227%, revenue hitting new highs, and SyrupUSDC continuing to outperform its peers in both yield and stability, the protocol is showing strong fundamentals and growing market confidence.

The widening gap between TVL and active loans is an important trend to watch, but it reflects a natural timing mismatch rather than a structural issue. As explained in our interview with Maple’s Head of Growth, the protocol now holds enough liquidity to support institutional demand at scale.

SyrupUSDC’s cross-chain growth, especially the successful expansion to Solana, demonstrates Maple’s ability to scale across ecosystems and maintain product relevance. Meanwhile, lstBTC, the upcoming liquid version of Maple’s BTC Yield product, is expected to unlock a new wave of growth by bringing BTC-native yield into DeFi. If it mirrors even part of SyrupUSDC’s trajectory, it could become a major catalyst in the second half of the year.

Finally, the surge in adoption, institutional partnerships, and token performance shows that Maple’s long-term strategy is resonating. If the current pace continues, the protocol is on track to meet or exceed its year-end goals and further strengthen its position at the intersection of DeFi and institutional credit.

We’ll be back in three months with our next report to track how Maple’s 2025 roadmap is unfolding.

This market report was prepared in collaboration with our partners GLC Research.