Maple (SYRUP) has seen a notable surge of 26% in the past week, setting it apart as the top performer among money markets in the lending index. It stands out alongside Sky as the only asset in the index to report a positive year-to-date performance, with Maple”s gains reaching an impressive 112% compared to Sky”s 7%. This raises the question: what factors are fueling Maple”s strength and resilience in a tough market environment?
As one of the longest-established lending protocols in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, Maple has successfully navigated the aftermath of the 2022 credit crisis. The protocol shifted its strategy from undercollateralized lending to a more secure, overcollateralized model, adopting an institutional approach. Its permissionless syrup pools accept deposits in USDC or USDT (syrupUSDC, syrupUSDT), while the permissioned pools exclusively accept USDC. Capital from these pools is then deployed over-the-counter (OTC) to institutional borrowers, secured by BTC or other highly liquid crypto assets.
As of now, Maple has exceeded $4 billion in total deposits. Approximately 63% of these deposits originate from the syrupUSDC pool, while 27% come from syrupUSDT, and the remaining 10% from Maple Institutional, its permissioned secured lending pool. When comparing Maple to its peers, it has been the fastest-growing protocol in terms of deposits among those with more than $3 billion in total deposits, except in Q3, where it ranked second to Fluid. The second quarter of this year marked Maple”s strongest performance, with a remarkable 225% increase in deposits and over 250% growth in borrows. Year-to-date, deposits have skyrocketed by 701%, while outstanding loans surged by 1,118%. It is significant to note that loan origination has outpaced the growth of deposits, indicating a high utilization rate.
The growth of syrupUSDC has been a primary driver, accounting for $2.66 billion in deposits as of December 21. One of the appealing features of syrupUSDC is its sustained high yield, which remains tied to stable demand from Maple”s institutional clientele. So far this year, syrupUSDC has outperformed other benchmark yields, boasting an average annual percentage yield (APY) of approximately 8%. However, it is important to highlight that the yield has been on a downward trend in recent months, with Morpho“s USDC yield also remaining competitive since August and showing significant outperformance in November.
For this analysis, we utilize market-weighted USDC supply rates across competing protocols based on the base interest paid by borrowers, excluding any incentives. We compute trailing 30-day annualized rates for comparison against the benchmark yield, syrupUSDC. Additionally, deep DeFi integrations have been another catalyst for the growth of syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT. Maple”s yield-bearing stablecoins have been integrated into Pendle“s PT markets and accepted as collateral across various money markets, including Aave, Fluid, Jup Lend, Spark, and Kamino. This integration enables efficient looping strategies against non-yield-bearing stablecoins, which can further enhance Maple”s growth, especially when syrupUSDC yields surpass benchmark rates, such as Ethena”s sUSDe.
In summary, Maple has outperformed its competitors in terms of both deposit and borrow growth year-to-date, in addition to providing attractive USDC supply yields. How does this performance reflect in terms of revenue? Analysis shows that Maple is trading at an appealing valuation compared to its peers based on quarterly revenue and price-to-sales multiples. A forecasted annualized revenue run rate for Maple indicates a substantial 533% year-over-year increase, rising from $1.0 million in Q4 2024 to an anticipated $6.6 million in Q4 2025. Notably, all allocations for initial team members, advisors, seed investors, and public sales have been fully vested as of 2023, alleviating concerns about supply overhang. Furthermore, SYRUP has received a score of 37 on the Token Transparency Framework, demonstrating comprehensive disclosure of its revenue streams, equity rights for token holders, advisory service providers, and details about the executive team.
Given these solid fundamentals and a favorable token structure characterized by limited supply overhang and transparent value accrual disclosures, it is no surprise that SYRUP has emerged as the best-performing lending token this year, continuing to demonstrate remarkable relative strength in recent days.
