Welcome to our ICYMI update from Week 20 2022. We took a look back at 1 year of Maple by hosting a get-together at Permissionless, launched Maple 2.0 with a new brand and website and shared a rolling status update about UST/Luna.

To celebrate one year of Maple we hosted a get-together of thought leaders, builders, and innovators while at Permissionless. Over pancakes we spoke about funding the future, and dedicated the rest of the time to creating synergies among old and new friends of Maple.

Sid also joined a panel at Permissionless alongside other big voices in the Institutional DeFi space – including Johann Bornman (MetaMask), Rachel Mayer (Circle), Luca Prosperi (MakerDAO), and Joseph Edwards (Solrise Finance). They spoke about the topic ‘Unlocking Institutional DeFi’, and had a great turnout at the event. We’ll share the recording as soon as it’s available.

This week we launched Maple 2.0, which included a new brand and website. Refined to reflect our maturity, Maple 2.0 captures the duality of liquidity and infrastructure and sticks in your mind.

Maple 2.0 is:

Is dynamic with a disruptive edge, accessible and user-centric. Is immediate, enticing audiences to dive into our world. Is contemporary, clean and sophisticated, reflecting our team and product.

Why Maple 2.0:

We have a differentiated product, we need a visual language to express that. We need an identity to empower us as we move into year 2 of Maple. We are energized by doing things differently.

Our gloopy new brand also took over at Permissionless. Let us know if you spotted the stickers or orange goodie bags?

Explore the new website.

We hosted the May Community Call this week. Joe, Sid, and Charlotte gave an update on UST/Luna, took a look back at 1 year of Maple, gave an update on MPL staking, and shared more about the new brand and website.

Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

We’re excited to have announced the launch date of MPL staking, which will take place on May 30th via the Maple WebApp. Stakers will immediately begin to benefit from Maple’s growth, and be rewarded in xMPL. In our recent Medium post we break down how the staking works, how reward amounts are determined, and how the Maple protocol generates revenue.

It is important to differentiate between staking MPL and providing single-sided pool cover.

1. Staking MPL

    — to earn a share of Maple revenues accrued to xMPL, as explained above.

2. Providing Pool Cover

    — this has been referred to as Staking in the past, but for clarity this will now be referred to as Pool Cover. We dive deeper into what this means in the article.

Single-sided pool coverage is planned to launch in Q3 of this year, which will benefit both the protocol and participants. We’ve shared a graph of the potential scenario of what it could look like should a staker participate in both xMPL staking and Pool Cover.

Read the full blog article for more.

Set a reminder for the launch date.

We announced our partnership with Cega, the first protocol to offer superior yield on exotic derivatives. Cega will be using the Maple Solana infrastructure as a launchpad for their exciting DeFi derivatives product.

Through harnessing the Maple platform’s KYC-AML processes, smart contracts and on-chain accounting tools, Cega has accelerated their growth and ensured a secure product for users. This partnership illustrates how Maple’s platform can be used as a tooling solution by anyone who wants to launch a liquidity programme.

Read more in the partnership announcement by Cega on Medium.

Quinn B does a deep dive with the Cega team on Twitter Spaces.

Solana Spaces shared an article from Smart Liquidity Research about the partnership.

The news was picked up by DeFi News on Twitter.

Sid joined Ben Whitby, who oversees regulatory affairs at Qredo, on the Real Vision podcast for a look behind the curtain of how Maple offers an undercollateralized lending infrastructure for institutional lenders & corporate borrowers. They delve into topics like managing credit risk, the structure of loans, compliance and regulation, and much more.

Watch the podcast.

We're pleased to announce that Enzyme now supports lending on Maple, which offers the portoflio managers within their ecosystem new yield opportunities. Lenders can earn $MPL tokens by depositing capital into pools managed by Pool Delegates for institutional borrowers.

Read the Medium post by Enzyme.

This week we shared a rolling status update on UST/Luna via a blog post on our website. The article covers steps taken since 05/09/22 by our team, and an update on capital available for withdrawal. Maple and our Pool Delegates contacted all borrowers on 05/09/22, and confirm none have material exposure to UST/Luna. All signs point to healthy loan books, and we are confident in the high quality counterparties on the Maple platform. We continue to be in close contact with all parties and will post all updates to the article.

Read the rolling status update on our website for more detail.

Neat comms:

• A $54M loan with 0% collateral was issued to Alameda Research, and we registered $1.3BN total loans issued.

• Sid breaks down the Maple business model in an article by Business Insider.

• Sid quoted in an article by Forbes about the volatility in crypto currencies.

• Meet Martin, our new Governance and Relations Manager

• We shared the ultimate thread about the recent Maple Solana launch.

• Maple mentioned by Genesis in their quarterly report.

• Bankless named Maple as one of the best yield opportunities in DeFi right now.

Next week:

• We’ll continue sharing updates about UST/Luna.

• More on MPL staking as the launch dates comes closer.