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 the power motor of this generation.

Maple Finance has quietly grown into one of the largest players in Crypto credit. Sid Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, told Crypto.News that he expects this growth to continue, driven by the increasing appreciation and institutional adoption of Bitcoin.

For this reason, Powell expects Bitcoin-supported lending to grow 10 times in three years and achieve a value of $ 200 billion. He also explained why he believes that Bitcoin will be the power motor of this generation, as was housing for baby boomers.

Crypto.news: You recently surpassed $ 4 billion in assets under management. Only two weeks ago that figure was less than $ 3 billion. What drives this rapid growth?

Sid Powell: two important things. First, macro conditions. As the tariff reductions begin or are expected, the yields in crypto credit become more attractive compared to traditional options. Investors are looking for a better return and platforms such as ours benefit from that shift.

Second, Defi integrations. Our work with Spark and the Sky Ecosystem has caused a lot of growth. The launch of Syrupusd (syrup) on plasma was also huge. That expansion of the cross-chain opened new capital and user base very quickly.

Our goal is to reach $ 5 billion by the end of the year, and we are on our way. Siroop USD is now the third largest stabile yield product that is there, behind Sky and Athena. That is a strong milestone for us. Looking ahead, we are working on integrating syrup in Aave and to plan a few chains before the end of the year.

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

SP: A bit, yes. If we see more speed reductions, it will probably speed up the inflow. On the other hand, if the rates are stable or if we see more instability, such as government closures, trade friction or macro shocks, that can temporarily delay things.

But in general we are optimistic. Stability and tariff compression tend to push more capital in the direction of Defi yield products such as ours.

CN: How do you see the role of Maple in Defi compared to what traditional financial institutions or banks do?

SP: We don’t try to be a bank, and to be honest we don’t want to be. What we do is closer to what alternative asset managers such as Apollo, Ares or Blackstone do. We arise credit and manage credit strategies, but we do not offer payment accounts or on-demand liquidity as a bank would do.

Banks must maintain capital, credit and liquidity reserves because they allow people to withdraw money at any time. That is a very complex business model with a lower return on equity. It is not attractive to us and we do not have the capital structure to support this.

Instead, we work as a credit fund. We take up capital, stand it up for a defined term and then borrow it – overcollaterally and mainly to institutional borrowers in crypto.

CN: And what are the most important benefits to do this in Defi?

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

First we can take out 24/7 loans using stablecoins. If someone needs a loan on Sunday at 2 o’clock, we can do that. No traditional lender can match that change.

Secondly, we have a worldwide reach. Whether you run a trading agency in Japan, Argentina or South Africa, we can immediately finance you on board and with USDC with USDC and without geographical barriers.

Thirdly, we automate a lot of the infrastructure with the help of smart contracts. This reduces the overhead and increases transparency, which means that we can offer better conditions.

Another thing is a capital increase. When we launched Siroop USD on Plasma two weeks ago, we picked up $ 200 million in less than two minutes. That level of speed and access to capital is simply not possible in Tradefi.

CN: What are the most important differences between Defi loans and traditional loans? Have Defi -lenders exposed to certain systemic risks?

SP: An important difference is the type of collateral with which we are dealing with. We use digital assets, mainly Bitcoin, ETH, Solana and XRP, as collateral. This introduces a different risk profile because these assets are more volatile than, for example, real estate or commercial debt.

But it also gives us a big advantage: liquidity. In traditional finances, if a borrower fails, it can take six months or more to actively take back and sell a house or business. In our case, if a borrower fails, we can liquidate the collateral within an hour. This makes risk management more responsive and more efficient.

There is also a risk premium that benefits us. Because the space is still early, the revenues are higher to compensate for the observed risk. But we believe that the actual return -corrected return is quite strong, especially with overcollateralization and real -time colland monitoring.

Over time, as the space matures, I expect that yields will compress, just as they did at traditional credit markets when they grew up.

So the advantage is liquidity and yield. The disadvantage is price volatility, and that is something that we alleviate by tightly managing LTV ratios and having real-time risk systems.

CN: You have recently been extended to arbitrum and avalanche. Do you see a multi-chain necessity going? And how do you determine which chains to prioritize?

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

That said, we are careful with which chains we choose. Launch on the wrong chain waste waste Time and resources, especially if the ecosystem stagnates or loses the total value.

We look at two important things. First, the size of the stablecoin nutrition on the chain. That is essentially our customer base. Necklaces such as Solana, Plasma and Arbitrum were attractive due to a strong stablecoin profitivity.

Secondly, we look at the quality of Defi partners in the chain. Are there markets, yield protocols or integrations where syrup USD can be used meaningfully? If we cannot engage things such as looping or secondary markets, the launch will not get a grip.

The decision is therefore based on those two pillars: Stablecoin Sovering and quality of Defi integrations.

CN: What do you think most people in Crypto still not pay enough attention?

SP: One thing I have had a lot about lately is the growth of Bitcoin-Stunder Loans. I think it will be a $ 200 billion market within three years, an increase of around $ 20 to $ 25 billion today.

The reason for this is that it is a completely new credit market that does not exist in traditional finances, in contrast to some other segments. And we are already starting to see interest from companies such as JPMorgan and Cantor Fitzgerald. They see the chance.

For Maple, we currently have around 5% of the Bitcoin-supported credit market among CEFI players. If the market is 10 times and we let our share grow to 10%, that is an increase of 20x in our own company. That is the long -term vision to reach a $ 20 billion loan book.

CN: Will the growth price of that growth pathbitcoin, or are there other factors?

SP: partly yes. The market capitalization of Bitcoin is today around $ 2 trillion and I think it can easily double to $ 4 trillion in the coming years. But the most important factor is adoption.

You see people like Ray Dalio suggest that investors should place 10 to 15% of their wealth in Bitcoin or gold as a hedge. As that mentality 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 development accumulation mechanism. They bought houses when the mortgage interest was 15%, and during the decades those rates fell to almost zero, causing real estate values ​​to rise en masse.

That cycle cannot repeat. Housing is already 10x family income in many places, it cannot rise much higher. Moreover, interest rates will not fall as they did from 15% to 0%. So the next generation needs a new one that can grow more than 10, 20, 30 years. I think that is Bitcoin.

And I think we will eventually see products as a 20-year-old Bitcoin loans, whereby you put down 10 or 20% and finance the rest as a mortgage, bet that Bitcoin will be worth much more. That is the financial infrastructure we are building.