Maple Finance Eyes Asian Expansion With $5M Investment, Returns to Solana

Blockchain-based credit marketplace Maple Finance has turned its attention to Asia and will expand into the region with a $5 million investment round, the firm said on Tuesday.

BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital led the fundraising round with Cherry Ventures, The Spartan Group, GSR Ventures and Veris Ventures participating, according to a press release. Previous investors Maven 11 and Framework Ventures also committed capital.

“This funding round marks a pivotal moment in our evolution as we embark on a strategic expansion into the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region as part of a comprehensive growth plan for Maple,” CEO Sidney Powell said in a statement. “The network is poised to further scale its technology and forge partnerships that enable compliant and seamless lending and borrowing adoption across the APAC region, specifically in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea,” Powell added.

Maple’s focus on Asia showcases the region’s increasing importance for the digital asset industry. Asian countries have taken charge in setting up clear rules for crypto firms to service consumers, which is in stark contrast to the regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. Hong Kong recently handed out the first licenses to trading platforms under the new crypto regime, while last week Singapore’s central bank released a regulatory framework for stablecoins. U.S-based exchange Gemini expanded in the region with a new hub in Singapore earlier this summer.

The development comes as Maple is recovering from last year’s massive crypto deleveraging after the spectacular collapse of FTX, which led to $54 million worth of distressed loan being accumulated on the platform.

The protocol debuted blockchain-based U.S. Treasuries facility in April, which has attracted $22 million of deposits since then. In June, the firm also set up a direct lending arm that targets web3 firms. Total value locked on Maple currently sits at $88 million, down from a peak of $938 million last May, according to DefiLlama.

Maple also announced on Monday that it restarted its use of the Solana (SOL) network after eight months, expanding its stablecoin cash management offering to the network.

Solana-based protocols Solend, Drift and UXD Protocol committed to deposit funds at the beginning, Maple said.

The facility, only available on Ethereum before, allows accredited investors, companies, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) to park their spare stablecoin stash in one-month U.S. Treasury bills and earn a 4-5% annual yield. It has attracted $22 million of deposits since commencing in April, according to the platform’s dashboard.

The move marks Maple’s return to Solana after it halted lending on the network last December amid a major tech overhaul following the collapse of FTX.

Tokens of Maple Finance (MPL) were up nearly 2% at $4.96, at the time of writing.