Maple Finance (Syrup Token) (SYRUP) is the governance token of Maple Finance, a decentralized institutional lending protocol deployed on Ethereum (mainnet) at contract address 0x643C4E15d7d62Ad0aBeC4a9BD4b001aA3Ef52d66.
Maple connects institutional borrowers with lenders through onchain credit pools, with its consumer-facing yield product branded Syrup (syrup.fi). The protocol also issues yield-bearing stablecoin products separate from SYRUP itself. SYRUP launched November 13, 2024, as the successor to Maple's original MPL token, and trades at approximately $0.187 as of 2026-09-01.
Maple links token value directly to protocol revenue: 25% of all protocol revenue funds open-market SYRUP buybacks through the Syrup Strategic Fund, replacing the inflationary staking rewards used previously.
This mechanism is backed by substantial underlying growth: assets under management reached $4.6 billion (+81% year-over-year) and Q2 2026 revenue reached $4.4 million (+47% year-over-year), with loans outstanding hitting an all-time high of $1.9 billion. Maple grew roughly 22% even as the broader DeFi lending market contracted about 31% over the same period.
SYRUP is a governance token: holders vote on Maple Improvement Proposals (MIPs) covering matters such as protocol fee levels and treasury management across the Maple and Syrup ecosystems.
Both staked and unstaked SYRUP were originally eligible to vote. Under MIP-019, stakers voted to end staking rewards and instead route 25% of protocol revenue into the Syrup Strategic Fund, which conducts transparent open-market SYRUP buybacks, replacing direct staking rewards with a revenue-to-buyback mechanism as the token's primary holder benefit.
SYRUP has a circulating supply of approximately 1.19 billion tokens against a total/fully diluted supply of approximately 1.24 billion, meaning nearly all supply is already unlocked.
Net emission is essentially flat to slightly deflationary: staking-reward inflation was ended under MIP-019, replaced by open-market buybacks funded from 25% of protocol revenue, which remove SYRUP from circulation rather than add to supply.
The legacy MPL token launched via a Balancer liquidity bootstrapping pool (LBP) IDO from April 28 to May 1, 2021, priced at $5.00. Maple sold 5% of MPL supply through the LBP, raising over $10 million to fund the protocol.
A January 2021 seed round raised $1.4 million from Framework Ventures and Polychain Capital. A $5 million strategic round closed in August 2023, led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital, with participation from Room40 Ventures, Cherry Crypto, Spartan Capital, GSR Ventures, and Veris Ventures. SYRUP itself launched on November 13, 2024, via a fixed 1:100 conversion from MPL.
Maple Finance (Syrup Token) (SYRUP) is deployed on Ethereum (mainnet), which secures the network through proof-of-stake consensus with validators staking ETH to propose and attest blocks.
A bridged implementation of the same token exists on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network that inherits Ethereum's security while using its own sequencer for transaction ordering. Maple does not operate an independent blockchain, validator set, or consensus mechanism of its own; all protocol logic runs as smart contracts on these existing chains.
Maple Finance was co-founded by Sidney (Sid) Powell, CEO, and Joe Flanagan, Executive Chairman/Co-Founder.
Sid Powell's background is in debt capital markets and institutional banking, including oversight of over $3 billion in corporate bond issuance at National Australia Bank and management of a $200 million-plus bond funding program. Joe Flanagan previously managed $400 million in transactions as a fintech CFO. The extended team reportedly includes members from JPMorgan, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and BlackRock.
Maple Finance is developed and maintained by Maple Labs, operating under the Maple DAO governance structure, with its consumer-facing yield product branded Syrup at syrup.fi.
Maple Labs maintains an open-source presence on GitHub (maple-labs) and is categorized across lending/borrowing, decentralized finance, yield farming, and real-world assets. Official channels include maple.finance, syrup.fi, and the @syrupfi social account.
SYRUP is the governance token of the Maple DAO, which governs the Maple and Syrup ecosystems via Maple Improvement Proposals (MIPs) covering fees and treasury management.
Under MIP-019, SYRUP stakers voted to end staking rewards and instead activate the Syrup Strategic Fund (SSF), which now receives 25% of all protocol revenue to execute transparent open-market SYRUP buybacks and grow the DAO treasury, linking protocol revenue directly to token demand. MIP-021, a rules-based buyback mechanism, was scheduled for a vote around July 13.
Maple's Q2 2026 ecosystem update named several concrete initiatives, including the launch of syrupUSDG, a regulated-dollar yield product, and expanded institutional credit access through Robinhood Earn.
Maple's V2 protocol contracts underwent three audits ahead of its December 2022 release, including Trail of Bits (Aug. 2022) and Spearbit (Oct. 2022). All identified issues were addressed before launch.
The protocol has since undergone a total of nine audits across releases in December 2022, June 2023, December 2023, and August 2024, involving firms including 0xMacro and Three Sigma. The Ethereum SYRUP contract holds a security score of 78/100. Holder concentration is a structural risk factor: the top 10 holders control 46% of supply and the top 50 control 79%, across 16,784 total holders.