Maple Finance, an onchain lender to institutions, announced the exits of two senior executives on consecutive days, and its chief executive has written a long letter to explain why.
The departures “relate to differing views on Maple’s path forward, not to the loan book or the health of the business”, Sidney Powell, Maple’s chief executive and co-founder, said in a letter on Friday.
The business model, in one line: lenders put stablecoins into Maple’s pools, institutional borrowers pay interest on loans, and that interest is the yield lenders earn, Maple says. For background, see what DeFi lending is.
The exits
On 11 Nov, Maple said co-founder Joe Flanagan was stepping down as chairman and leaving, calling it “an agreed and orderly transition”. Flanagan wrote that “over time, our views on strategy, leadership, and life have moved further apart”, Cointelegraph reported.
On 12 Nov, COO Ryan O’Shea said on X he would step down after almost five years, citing “a different view on the direction Maple should take”. His last day is Friday 27 Nov.
Powell says Flanagan will support the handover until the end of 2026. Neither Maple’s posts nor her letter name a successor as chairman or COO.
The check
Powell’s letter sets out where she wants to take Maple: further toward banks, fintechs and traditional finance, with five bets that include institutional credit and yield products. She says revenue is up 82% this year through the third quarter, and that Maple has originated more than $20 billion of loans.
Later that day Maple said it had asked The Network Firm to run an out-of-cycle proof of reserves. As of 12:11 p.m. US Eastern (17:11 UTC), syrupUSDC was 156.2% collateralised, syrupUSDT 137.7% and syrupUSDG 150.8%, with verified collateral totalling $1.89 billion, it said on X.
The Defiant reported that the provider describes its work as not an audit or an assurance engagement.
Maple also said withdrawal requests “are being processed through each pool’s standard withdrawal process, as designed”. It did not say how large withdrawals have been.
The skeptics’ reading
Neither the letter nor the exits say what the disagreement was. Flanagan wrote that he would leave “rather than continue supporting a direction I cannot stand behind”, Cointelegraph reported, which points to strategy, but Maple has not detailed it.
The market has noticed.
SYRUP traded near $0.104 at 14:55 UTC, down about 13% in 24 hours, with a market value near $121 million, CoinGecko showed. Cointelegraph put it down 62% this year as of 12 Nov. DefiLlama shows Maple’s deposits at about $2.21 billion, from about $2.37 billion on 11 Nov.
A collateral ratio shows what backs the loans, not whether borrowers repay. It is a snapshot taken after the news, at Maple’s request, and Maple chose the timing and the checker.
What’s next
Maple has promised to introduce more of its leadership team “in the coming months”. O’Shea leaves on 27 Nov. For how the stablecoins in these pools work, see what a dollar stablecoin is.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.