Maple (MPL), an institutional crypto-capital marketplace powered by blockchain tech, recently announced its launch on the Solana blockchain.
As mentioned in an update shared with CI, this launch reportedly makes Maple one of the first undercollateralized lending protocols on the Solana blockchain, “and the first to be multi-chain.”
Sidney Powell, CEO and Co-Founder of Maple, stated:
“In less than one year since launching on Ethereum, Maple proved to be a critical infrastructure provider to not only blockchain companies but increasingly traditional institutions entering the space. Expanding on Solana is a milestone moment to meet the massive financing needs of the Solana ecosystem and show we are the premier decentralized lending infrastructure in the DeFi industry,”
Powell added:
“Building the first multi-chain capital markets solution will in turn attract higher quality lenders and borrowers, create unprecedented growth opportunities for innovators building on Solana, and enable the entire industry to thrive.”
As noted in the announcement, the first pool delegate to join is X-Margin, “managing an initial pool size of $45M. ”
Coinshares deposit $20M, Circle $10M of their Solana USDC, and Solana DAOs and investors ($10M) “comprise the initial liquidity injection of $40M.”
The pool, denominated in Solana USDC, “is open to deposits of $5M from the DeFi public.”
X-Margin is “a platform that uses confidential computing and cryptographic proofs to privately monitor real-time risk of borrowers, alongside evaluating KYC and financial statements.”
The platform “enables transparency and improved lender risk management, facilitating cost-effective credit to the crypto sector.
X-Margin has proven their technology “through existing collaborations with Maple delegates, and shares Maple’s dedication to expanding access to safe and secure lending.”
Maple’s expansion onto Solana was “fueled by a belief in a multi-chain future and precipitated by its acquisition of Avari, an undercollateralized lending protocol built on the Solana ecosystem, in January 2022.”
The acquisition also “grew Maple’s team to include Stanford engineers and Avari founders, Quinn Barry and Jeffrey Hu.”
As Ethereum’s gas fees are prohibitive for some customers, “expanding onto Solana allows Maple to reach new clients while taking advantage of Solana’s powerful ecosystem and large institutional presence.”
Quinn Barry, Head of Maple Solana, remarked:
“By combining Maple’s proven product expertise with the scalable nature of the Solana blockchain and X-Margin’s superior privacy- preserving credit risk infrastructure, we are unlocking frictionless financing solutions for the entire Solana ecosystem. Over the next three months, we expect to bring over $300 million of total value locked (TVL) to Solana.”
Since Maple’s debut in May 2021, the company has “originated over $1.2 billion in loans and currently has over $900 million in TVL in the platform.”
Maple also launched DeFi’s “first” permissioned institutional lending pool “with BlockTower and Genesis, originated over $100 million in loans to quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, parent company to FTX, and established a partnership with crypto lending platform Celsius, who committed $30 million of wrapped ether (wETH) to Maple’s liquidity pools.”