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Maple (SYRUP) is up 26% over the past week, outperforming all other money markets in our Lending Index. Along with Sky, it is the only asset in the index with positive year-to-date performance, and by a wide margin, up 112% versus Sky’s 7%. What drives Maple’s strength, and how has it maintained its resilience despite challenging market conditions?
Maple, as one of the oldest DeFi lending protocols, was able to bounce back from the 2022 credit crisis by moving away from uncollateralized lending towards a fully collateralized, over-collateralized model, with Institutional approach: Unauthorized syrup pools accept USDC or USDT deposits (syrupUSDC, syrup USDT), while authorized pools only accept USDC. Capital from these OTC pools is then deployed to institutional borrowers, collateralized by Bitcoin or other highly liquid crypto assets.
As shown below, Maple deposits have exceeded $4 billion, with approximately 63% of deposits coming from the USDC syrup pool, 27% from the USDT syrup pool, and 10% from the Maple Institutional pool (the permitted secured lending pool).
How does Maple stack up against other financial markets? Among protocols with more than $3 billion in deposits, Maple was the fastest growing in every quarter this year except Q3, when it ranked second behind Fluid. The second quarter marked Maple’s strongest quarter, with deposits up 225% and loans up more than 250%. Year-to-date, deposits have grown by an exceptional 701%, while outstanding loans have increased by 1,118%. It is worth noting that loan creation outpaced deposit growth, which confirms the increasingly high utilization rate.
Maple’s growth was largely driven by sauceUSDC, which as mentioned represented 63% of Maple deposits ($2.66 billion) as of December 21. One of the attractive selling points of sauceUSDC is the sustained high yield, linked to stable demand from Maple’s institutional client base. USDC Syrup USDC has outperformed all other benchmark returns in the group year-to-date, with an average APY of around 8%. However, it is worth noting that yields have declined in recent months, with Morpho USDC yield remaining competitive since August and outperforming sharply during November.
In terms of methodology, we use market-weighted USDC bid rates across competing protocols, based on the underlying interest paid by borrowers (excluding any incentives). We then calculate the trailing 30-day annualized rates and compare them to the benchmark yield, USDC syrup.
Another catalyst for the growth of USDC syrup and USDT syrup is the deep DeFi integration. Maple’s yielding stablecoins have been integrated into Pendle’s PT markets and are listed as collateral on several money markets (Aave, Fluid, Jup Lend, Spark, Kamino), enabling recurring strategies against non-yielding stables. This type of distribution can further accelerate Maple’s growth, especially during periods when USDC syrup outperforms benchmark yields, including Ethena’s sUSDe.
Putting it all together, Maple has outperformed competing money markets year to date in deposit and borrowing growth, as well as USDC supply returns. How has this performance translated into revenue? The table below compares Maple to its peers in terms of quarterly revenue and price-to-sales multiples.
Based on Q4 2025 revenue numbers, Maple (SYRUP) is trading at the most attractive valuation of the group based on growth and FDV/sales. Maple’s annual revenue run rate increased 533% year over year, from $1.0 million in Q4 2024 to an expected $6.6 million in Q4 2025.
Regarding the token distribution, all initial team, advisor, seed investor and public sale allocations have been fully vested as of 2023, eliminating concerns regarding supply backlog. It should be noted that SYRUP syrup scored 37 points Token transparency frameindicating that the project has fully disclosed its revenue sources, the rights of token holders, advisory service providers, and executive team employees.
Given Maple’s fundamentals, coupled with a favorable token structure (limited oversupply and clear disclosures about value accumulation), it is no surprise that SYRUP has been the best-performing lending token to date and has continued to show notable relative strength in recent days.
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