Maple Finance Launches DeFi's First Syndicated Loans With Alameda Research

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Maple Finance has launched the first DeFi-focused syndicated loans, allowing large-cap institutions to access debt capital markets on Ethereum. 

Maple Finance Launches Loan For Alameda Research 

Capital efficiency in DeFi is improving. 

The Ethereum-based corporate lending platform announced Thursday that it had launched the first DeFi syndicated loan with Alameda Research. The new offering will allow borrowers to syndicate loans directly from accredited institutional investors worldwide through a single borrower-lending pool. 

Quantitative trading firm Alameda Research is the first institution to take advantage of the new borrowing vehicle, attracting $25 million from industry leaders including CoinShares, Abra, and Ascendex. 

Unlike traditional debt capital markets activity, Maple Finance allows borrowers to expand their syndicated loans at any time. The lending platform plans to increase funds lent to Alameda Research over the next 12 months, with the end goal of facilitating $1 billion for the trading firm.  

Alameda’s co-CEO Sam Trabucco said of the launch: 

“The crypto trading landscape has evolved very quickly over the past few years, and we expect it to continue to do so. The flexibility that comes from a decentralized, on-chain lending platform like this one helps Alameda adapt to that landscape, and we look forward to seeing it grow.”

Syndicated loans allow a borrower to simultaneously access funds from a group of lenders, increasing capital efficiency in debt markets. Additionally, Maple’s syndicated loans are conducted entirely on the Ethereum network allowing for greater flexibility and security for both lenders and borrowers. 

Maple Finance currently restricts its DeFi syndicated loans to accredited institutions outside the U.S. This lets lenders know that the other participants in the pool have also been through anti-money laundering and know your customer processing. With such stringent checks for lenders, the project is hoping to entice large traditional finance participants to also sign up for its funding waitlist.

Maple Finance is an institutional lending platform focused on providing undercollateralized loans for crypto-native companies. In May, the protocol started offering institutional DeFi loans facilitating $17 million from lenders including Blockchain.com and CoinShares. Earlier this month, the platform launched permissioned pools, enabling regulated entities to facilitate on-chain undercollateralized lending for the first time.

Disclosure: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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