Maple Finance launches 'Lend + Long' product that buys bitcoin call options using revenue from its high-yield lending pool

Decentralized lending platform Maple Finance has launched a “first-of-its-kind” onchain structured yield product offering institutions exposure to Bitcoin, according to an announcement on Monday.

The so-called “Lend + Long” product is being marketed towards institutional investors, corporate treasuries and yield funds and is promising “bitcoin price upside without downside exposure.”

“Institutional investors are looking for a way to capture Bitcoin’s upside without the associated volatility,” Maple CEO Sid Powell said in a statement. It also provides an avenue to gain “structured BTC exposure” without direct BTC ownership.

In short, the product will take yield from a high-yield liquidity pool Maple maintains and purchase BTC call options. Maple runs multiple pools with varying risk profiles. The pool in question here, called the “Maple High Yield Secured Pool,” accepts a broader range of riskier altcoins as collateral and therefore offers lenders higher interest rates.

Lenders provide capital for loans backed by a selection of cryptocurrencies. By way of comparison, Maple also manages a "Blue Chip Secured" pool, which is more conservative in that it only accepts top-tier assets like Bitcoin and Ether as collateral.

All loans in the high-yield onchain pool are overcollateralized, meaning borrowers must provide more collateral than the loan amount, which also helps manage risk.

Maple, launched in 2021, has approximately $110 million in total value locked.

The protocol cut its teeth connecting lenders and borrowers using lending pools that are managed by third-party credit companies though has since expanded. In 2023, for instance, it launched Maple Direct to underwrite and issue over-collateralized loans in USDC and USDT to crypto businesses. It has also expanded into the tokenized Treasury’s space.

In 2024, Maple launched the SYRUP token for the retail-focused Syrup.Fi platform. Earlier this month, the team mulled using protocol revenues for monthly buybacks of SYRUP that would be distributed as rewards to stakers.