Interview | Bitcoin lending will x10 by 2028: Maple CEO

Sid Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, says that Bitcoin lending will reach $200 billion, and that BTC is this generation’s wealth engine.

Maple Finance has quietly grown into one of the biggest players in crypto credit. Sid Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, told crypto.news that he expects this growth to continue, driven by Bitcoin’s increasing valuation and institutional adoption.

For this reason, Powell expects Bitcoin-backed lending to grow 10x in three years, reaching $200 billion in value. He also explained why he believes that Bitcoin will be this generation’s wealth engine, like housing was for baby boomers.

crypto.news: You’ve recently surpassed $4 billion in assets under management. Just two weeks ago, that figure was under $3 billion. What’s driving this rapid growth?

Sid Powell: Two main things. First, macro conditions. As rate cuts begin or are anticipated, yields in crypto credit become more attractive relative to traditional options. Investors start looking for better returns, and platforms like ours benefit from that shift.

Second, DeFi integrations. Our work with Spark and the Sky ecosystem has driven a lot of growth. Launching SyrupUSD (SYRUP) on Plasma was also huge. That cross-chain expansion opened up new capital and user bases very quickly.

Our goal is to reach $5 billion by the end of the year, and we’re on track for that. Syrup USD is now the third-largest stablecoin yield product out there, behind Sky and Athena. That’s a strong milestone for us. Looking ahead, we’re working on getting Syrup integrated into Aave and planning launches on a couple more chains before year-end.

CN: Do you expect your AUM to fluctuate based on macro factors?

SP: A little, yes. If we see more rate cuts, that will likely accelerate inflows. On the other hand, if rates hold steady or if we see more instability, like government shutdowns, trade friction, or macro shocks, that could slow things down temporarily.

But overall, we’re optimistic. Stability and rate compression tend to push more capital toward DeFi yield products like ours.

CN: How do you see Maple’s role in DeFi compared to what traditional financial institutions or banks do?

SP: We’re not trying to be a bank, and honestly, we don’t want to be. What we’re doing is closer to what alternative asset managers like Apollo, Ares, or Blackstone do. We originate credit and manage lending strategies, but we’re not offering checking accounts or on-demand liquidity like a bank would.

Banks have to maintain capital, credit, and liquidity reserves because they allow people to withdraw money at any time. That’s a very complex business model with lower returns on equity. It’s not attractive for us, and we don’t have the capital structure to support it.

Instead, we operate like a credit fund. We take in capital, lock it for a defined term, and then lend it out — overcollateralized and primarily to institutional borrowers in crypto.

CN: And what are the key advantages of doing this in DeFi?

SP: Three things: speed, reach, and cost-efficiency.

First, we can settle loans 24/7 using stablecoins. If someone needs a loan at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, we can do that. No traditional lender can match that turnaround.

Second, we have global reach. Whether you’re running a trading firm in Japan, Argentina, or South Africa, we can onboard and fund you with USDC instantly and with no geographic barriers.

Third, we automate a lot of the infrastructure using smart contracts. That reduces overhead and increases transparency, which means we can offer better terms.

Another thing is capital raising. When we launched Syrup USD on Plasma two weeks ago, we raised $200 million in under two minutes. That level of speed and access to capital just isn’t possible in TradFi.

CN: What are the main differences between DeFi lending and traditional lending? Are DeFi lenders exposed to certain systemic risks?

SP: One key difference is the type of collateral we deal with. We use digital assets, primarily Bitcoin, ETH, Solana, and XRP, as collateral. That introduces a different risk profile because these assets are more volatile than, say, real estate or corporate debt.

But it also gives us a major advantage: liquidity. In traditional finance, if a borrower defaults, it can take six months or more to repossess and sell off a house or business asset. In our case, if a borrower defaults, we can liquidate the collateral within an hour. That makes risk management more responsive and efficient.

There’s also a risk premium we benefit from. Since the space is still early, yields are higher to compensate for perceived risk. But we believe the actual risk-adjusted returns are quite strong, especially with overcollateralization and real-time collateral monitoring.

Over time, as the space matures, I expect yields will compress, just like they did in traditional credit markets as they matured.

So the upside is liquidity and yield. The downside is price volatility, and that’s something we mitigate by managing LTV ratios tightly and having real-time risk systems.

CN: You’ve recently expanded to Arbitrum and Avalanche. Do you see going multi-chain as a necessity? And how do you decide which chains to prioritize?

SP: Yes, going multi-chain is essential in the medium to long term. These ecosystems are growing quickly, and to serve more users and deepen liquidity, we need to be where the activity is.

That said, we’re careful about which chains we choose. Launching on the wrong chain wastes time and resources, especially if its ecosystem is stagnating or losing total value locked.

We look at two main things. First, the size of the stablecoin supply on the chain. That’s essentially our customer base. Chains like Solana, Plasma, and Arbitrum were attractive because of strong stablecoin liquidity.

Second, we look at the quality of DeFi partners on the chain. Are there lending markets, yield protocols, or integrations where Syrup USD can be used meaningfully? If we can’t enable things like looping or secondary markets, the launch won’t gain traction.

So the decision is based on those two pillars: stablecoin supply and quality of DeFi integrations.

CN: What’s something you think most people in crypto still aren’t paying enough attention to?

SP: One thing I’ve been talking about a lot recently is the growth of Bitcoin-backed lending. I think it’s going to be a $200 billion market within the next three years, up from around $20 to $25 billion today.

The reason for this is that it’s an entirely new credit market that doesn’t exist in traditional finance, unlike some other segments. And we’re already starting to see interest from firms like JPMorgan and Cantor Fitzgerald. They see the opportunity.

For Maple, we currently have about 5% of the Bitcoin-backed lending market among CeFi players. If the market 10x’s and we grow our share to 10%, that’s a 20x increase in our own business. That’s the long-term vision, to get to a $20 billion loan book.

CN: Will that growth track Bitcoin’s price, or are there any other factors?

SP: Partly, yes. Bitcoin’s market cap is around $2 trillion today, and I think it can easily double to $4 trillion over the next few years. But the more important factor is adoption.

You’re seeing people like Ray Dalio suggest that investors should put 10 to 15% of their wealth in Bitcoin or gold as a hedge. As that mindset spreads, Bitcoin becomes a core part of people’s portfolios, and then the financialization around it accelerates.

For the baby boomers, real estate was the core wealth accumulation mechanism. They bought homes when mortgage rates were 15%, and over the decades, those rates dropped to nearly zero, driving property values up massively.

That cycle can’t repeat. Housing is already 10x household income in many places, it they can’t go up much higher. Moreover, interest rates won’t drop like they did from 15% to 0% again. So the next generation needs a new asset that can grow over 10, 20, 30 years. I think that’s Bitcoin.

And I think we’ll eventually see products like 20-year Bitcoin loans, where you put down 10 or 20% and finance the rest like a mortgage, betting that Bitcoin will be worth far more down the line. That’s the financial infrastructure we’re building toward.