M11 Credit Resumes Crypto Lending on Maple Finance After FTX-Spurred Pause

M11 Credit has reopened lending and is raising fresh capital for its new crypto lending pool on blockchain-based credit marketplace Maple Finance, the firm tweeted Wednesday.

It also appointed a new head of credit and has upgraded its risk management and credit underwriting process, a Maple blog post said.

The new developments came after pools managed by M11 Credit suffered $36 million of defaults, other loans missed payment and it restructure following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November. While some crypto watchers saw FTX’s sudden implosion as a black swan event, the subsequent contagion to trading firms and lenders highlighted crypto lending’s deficiencies in risk management and credit underwriting.

Notably, Orthogonal Trading, one of the largest borrowers of M11 pools, allegedly misled M11 and Maple by misrepresenting its financials and losses from FTX. Subsequently, investors in the affected pools faced up to 80% losses on their deposits.

Following the events, M11 Credit expanded its team that oversees crypto lending activities and upgraded its underwriting process and credit policy, including introducing real-time monitoring of assets on blockchain and off-chain, according to Maple.

The new M11 Credit lending pool is a permissioned USD coin (USDC) stablecoin pool, where liquidity providers need to go through know-your-customer (KYC) checks to invest.

The pool’s first borrower is digital asset trading firm Flow Traders, which took out a 3.5 million USDC loan with a 60-day term for 12.5% annualized interest rate, according to Maple’s public loan dashboard.

M11 said it is raising additional funds for the pool to lend to a “highly reputable and creditworthy market-neutral trading firm that we’ve carefully vetted.”

Representatives of M11 Credit did not immediately return a request for comment.

M11’s renewed activity on crypto credit markets and the recent debt restructuring of trading firm Auros may signal a turning point for crypto lending after the FTX collapse led to lenders recalling loans and reducing lending.

The upcoming volatility on crypto markets and scarcity of lending after the blowup of multiple centralized lenders present an opportunity for M11 Credit, the firm tweeted Wednesday.

“We anticipate that the upcoming Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, persisting regulatory pressure and prevailing macro risks may elevate volatility in the cryptocurrency market, presenting opportunities for market-neutral trading firms and driving demand for trading capital.”

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