Maple Finance, an on-chain asset manager overseeing more than $3.1 billion, and Aave, the largest decentralized finance protocol (DeFi), announced a strategic partnership on Tuesday to bring institutional-quality assets to Aave’s credit markets.
Initial integrations include syrupUSDT on Aave’s Plasma instance, followed by syrupUSDC on the core market, with additional Maple assets to be added over time, according to a press release viewed by The Defiant. Aave is currently the largest DeFi protocol with a total value locked (TVL) of over $40 billion.
The partnership aims to stabilize loan demand, improve capital efficiency and strengthen liquidity within Aave’s variable lending model, according to a press release from The Defiant.
“This partnership between Maple and Aave marks a meaningful evolution in the way institutional capital interacts with decentralized markets,” Sid Powell, CEO and co-founder of Maple Finance, told The Defiant. “By introducing curated institutional returns to Aave’s liquidity pools, we are creating new ways for capital to move efficiently and transparently across the chain.”
Powell added that this move also reflects the growing maturity of DeFi, as established protocols work together to “build infrastructure that can support true institutional participation.” The broader DeFi market has seen tremendous growth since last year, with TVL up 76% today to $160 billion.
Tuesday’s announcement follows a series of moves by Maple to expand its DeFi footprint. On Monday, Maple’s syrupUSDC token was listed on Fluid, a decentralized liquidity platform.
The asset can now be used as collateral for multiple stablecoin pairs, including USDC, USDT and GHO, with a loan-to-value (LTV) of up to 90% and a reward incentive of 1% USDC, according to an X-post from Fluid.
In June, Maple announced a separate partnership with Lido Finance to provide stablecoin lines of credit backed by staked Ether (stETH) collateral. Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol, with over $33 billion in TVL.
And then, earlier this year, Maple SyrupUSDC expanded into the Solana Network, which currently boasts a TVL of more than $13 billion.
Maple’s native SYRUP token is currently trading at $0.35, down around 6% on the day as the broader crypto markets slump. Launched in 2021, the asset manager has recorded significant TVL growth this year, rising from $298 million in early 2025 to $2.9 billion currently, according to DefiLlama.
