Medici Level Up with Sidney Powell, Co-Founder of Maple Finance

In this episode of Level Up, David and Sean sit down with Sidney Powell, Co-Founder and CEO of Maple Finance, alongside Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research. Sidney shares Maple’s journey from tokenized bonds to becoming a major on-chain asset manager offering over-collateralized lending and Bitcoin yield products. Felipe adds an investor’s perspective on Maple’s positioning within decentralized credit markets and what sets it apart from traditional and DeFi lending platforms. Together they analyze Maple’s growth, risk management, and roadmap.

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Key Points From This Episode:

[00:00:40] Introduction to Maple Finance and guest intros  

[00:17:24] Sidney’s background in debt capital markets and the founding story of Maple  

[00:19:02] Maple’s early focus on under-collateralized lending and pivot to over-collateralized lending  

[00:19:36] Origin of the “Maple” and “Syrup” branding  

[00:21:12] Felipe’s background and Thea’s investment thesis on Maple  

[00:25:22] How Maple operates as an on-chain asset manager  

[00:28:47] Custody structures and why institutions prefer Maple’s hybrid approach  

[00:31:30] Lessons from the 2022 lending crises and Maple’s segregation of risk  

[00:34:28] Positioning Maple in the Web3 lending landscape  

[00:37:06] How Maple handles collateral, margin calls, and liquidations  

[00:42:42] New product growth: Syrup USD and Bitcoin yield products  

[00:46:18] Integrations with DeFi protocols and CEX partnerships  

[00:49:26] Maple’s competitive edge between TradFi and DeFi  

[00:56:23] Wholesale funding relationships and the Cantor Fitzgerald partnership  

[00:59:34] Maple’s cost of capital, NIM, and revenue model  

[01:05:35] The role of the Syrup token and governance mechanics  

[01:09:40] Token supply, staking, and institutional holders  

[01:16:06] Final thoughts on Maple’s growth strategy and future outlook

Links:

The Medici Network: https://www.medici.network/ 

Podcast Site: https://levelup.medici.network/ 

Interested in being a Protocol Guest? Connect with Elmira on X: https://x.com/elmira_yilham 

Co-Hosts

David Grider, Finality Capital - https://x.com/David_Grid

Sean Farrell, Fundstrat Global Advisors - https://x.com/SeanMFarrell

Guests  

Sidney Powell - https://x.com/syrupsid?lang=en

Felipe Montealegre - https://x.com/theiaresearch?lang=en

Production and editing by The Podcast Consultant  - https://thepodcastconsultant.com/