Genesis is parking $75 million in capital into Maple's Solana-based lending platform

Market Structure • June 1, 2022, 2:00PM EDT
UPDATED: June 1, 2022, 2:29PM EDT
The Block

Genesis, one of the crypto market's biggest lending and trading firms, is ramping up its decentralized finance footprint by contributing $75 million to Maple's Solana-based lending platform. 

Genesis' contribution to Maple Solana will make it the first centralized trading firm to serve as a pool delegate for its Solana-based platform. Maple launched its Solana platform earlier this year, having also run a lending platform on Ethereum as well. 

Trading firms Wintermute and Amber Group plan to borrow from the pool, which is operated by GGC International Limited. 

To be sure, the $75 million represents a small fraction of Genesis' total loan book, which stood above $44 billion as of March 2022. Through its subsidiary Genesis Capital, the firm originates tens of billions of dollars worth of crypto loans per month.

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Yet the contribution to Maple reflects how large crypto firms are increasingly turning to decentralized finance — and in this case, the Solana network — to execute trades and lend out funds. Genesis said that running part of their loan book through Maple's infrastructure translates into lower operating costs by replacing traditional software tools with on-chain capabilities.

Unlike Wall Street, the barriers to entry to participate in the Maple ecosystem are not as onerous, allowing any "sophisticated" underwriter to form a pool. Borrowers on the platform go through a due diligence process that is overseen by pool delegates in order to mitigate credit risks. 

"We fully expect most of the large CeFi players in crypto to utilize Maple’s infrastructure to enhance their on-chain lending businesses over the next year," explained Maple's founder Sid Powell. 

Despite the volatility of the crypto market, which has seen bitcoin's price decline by more than 30% this year, Maple claims that none of its borrowers have missed interest payments since its inception in May 2021.

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Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].