On Thursday 30 May, Maple Finance, a platform known for liquidity pools made up of institutions, launched its first Decentralized finance syndicated loan for Alameda Research. The company also launched a new protocol on May 28, named Syrup to sort out financial issues of the DeFi community.
This launch follows significant challenges faced by the company due to the FTX-Alameda collapse, including cutting ties with Orthogonal Trading in December 2022.
What Syrup Offers?
Syrup lets users access secure institutional lending without needing special permission. Users deposit Circle’s USD Coin on the platform and receive syrup USDC liquidity pool (LP) tokens in return, which they can use to earn interest.
In a press release, Maple Finance stated that they will provide loans against security to the big institutions which can help them generate their interest. Some community members view this move with doubt due to the FTX-Alameda debacle.
Maple Finance Loan Defaults Spark Mixed Reactions to Syrup Launch
The reason behind default loans, which Maple Finance experienced is the out of exposure with FTX, like Orthogonal Trading, which eats up $36 million in loans. This default left a huge impact on Maple‘s lending pool and resulted in a significant loss to those who invested in this pool.
The X community members showed mixed sentiments following the launch of Syrup. Many users asked for the necessity to launch new tokens, while others expressed confused emotions as the FTX-Alameda issue is still unsolved.
“Bit to unpack here. But the jist is, you are matching aml kycless lenders to onboarded borrowers and I guess..passing on the burden to the borrowers that it’s a permissionless pool with no aml kycd lenders? And as you are a tech platform it’s not on you.”
Concerns Over MPL Token Migration
Maple Finance also announced to introduction Syrup token for the community which will help holders stake it and participate in the program. The company’s native Maple (MPL) token holders can switch to SYRUP at a one-to-one rate with no extra dilution expected.
A question was raised by an X user showing his concerns about the “need for a new token” and migration of MPL tokens.
“A new protocol powered by Maple has been introduced, but why do we need a new token and the migration of $MPL to this new token? Why not simply use $MPL to power the new protocol?”
However, Maple Finance responded to the concern by stating that it is “simply the name of the MPLv2 token.”
Maple Finance called a meeting on June 4 at 7:00 pm UTC, to discuss the working of Syrup launch.
