Celsius Dips Into DeFi, Delegating $30M in ETH on Maple Finance

Celsius is getting its feet wet in decentralized finance lending and will leverage Maple Finance’s infrastructure rails to do it

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Celsius has tapped capital marketplace Maple Finance’s rails for the management and issuance of DeFi loans
  • Loans will be assessed based on a borrowers credit score, profitability and the strength of their balance sheet

Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius is dipping its toes into DeFi by becoming the first centralized finance institution to deploy its services on capital marketplace Maple Finance.

By utilizing Maple’s DeFi (decentralized finance) infrastructure, Celsius will issue and manage under-collateralized loans as a delegate from a pool of $30 million in wrapped ether (WETH), according to a press release on Thursday. Wrapped tokens represent cryptos from other blockchains and are worth the same as the original. Pool delegates within Maple oversee lending pools and assess borrowers in exchange for a fee.

“The partnership came together naturally after we chatted in Q4, 2021,” Daniel Kim, Maple’s head of capital markets, told Blockworks. He added that the companies’ missions and areas of expertise were closely aligned.

“It only took a few conversations to realize Celsius as a pool delegator was an idea worth exploring.”

Daniel Kim; Source: LinkedIn

Maple Finance provides tooling and smart contract kits to businesses, such as Celsius, as well as access to turnkey solutions for loan origination, loan management and real-time performance reporting.

“This…shows the next growth in crypto where [centralized finance] and DeFi platforms are working together,” Kim added. “It helps us achieve our goal to establish Maple as the dominant institutional capital network in crypto.”

Loans will be assessed on the basis of the borrower’s profitability, balance sheet strength and credit history. Celsius said it plans to scale the number of borrowers and loans issued in the coming year as it continues to fund “fast-growing” crypto institutions. Celsius joins BlockTower, Orthogonal Trading and Maven 11 as pool delegates.

The DeFi protocol claims its pool delegate model is “unique” because it enables businesses and credit funds to grab a hold of its rails to operate as lenders within the nascent DeFi sector.

“Maple’s lending infrastructure means we can move quickly and securely into this space,” said Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky.

“Celsius will draw on its deep experience in underwriting and look forward to welcoming new borrowers this year and beyond.”

More than $760 million in crypto loans have originated on the protocol following its launch in May 2021, with over $650 million in total value locked, according to data by provider DeFi Llama. Maple said it aims to hit a $5 billion loan volume target by year’s end by matching customer demand and exploring new markets.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template.png

Research

RTK networks are critical to enabling a world of ubiquitous autonomous drones, vehicles, and industrial robots. We believe the GEOD token enables both a cost and product advantage for the GEODNET RTK network, which will allow it to out-compete multi-billion dollar incumbents Trimble and Hexagon.

article-image

Hunter Horsley says Solana is one of this cycle’s breakout successes that he thinks clients will want to access

article-image

SOL has climbed more than 2,000% in the past two years

article-image

MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor alluded to Marathon’s CEO during a X Spaces on Tuesday

article-image

Crypto’s calls are equally as juiced as puts, creating a “smile” in the volatility surface

article-image

Turns out that owning the end-user via a crypto wallet is quite a prosperous business

article-image

The announcement followed growing speculation that Gensler would announce his exit before Trump takes office next year