Bitwise Makes Its First Institutional DeFi Allocation Via Maple Finance

Bitwise Asset Management has made its first institutional allocation leveraging decentralized finance (DeFi) through the institutional lender Maple Finance.

According to a press release shared with Cryptonews, Bitwise can now access on-chain credit via Maple’s compliant infrastructure, while also meeting institutional regulatory standards.

The team states that the move is a major milestone in institutional allocators’ adoption of on-chain credit. What’s more, Bitwise’s allocation suggests a broader shift. Institutional capital is surpassing the established fixed income to adopt more efficient on-chain lending markets.

It is increasingly looking for structured, transparent, and yield-generating opportunities within the evolving digital asset space, the announcement argues.

Institutional adoption of on-chain credit is here.@BitwiseInvest, a premier asset manager with $12B+ in client assets, has made its first institutional allocation leveraging DeFi through Maple.

The future of finance is on-chain. Full press release below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/vmr6D1yOLt

— Maple (@maplefinance) March 6, 2025

“Bitwise’s allocation marks a watershed moment for on-chain credit” as “the convergence between DeFi and traditional finance is accelerating,” commented Sid Powell, Maple Finance’s co-founder and CEO.

“This partnership is a testament to the maturity and readiness of on-chain lending infrastructure, delivering the transparency, security, and efficiency that institutions require,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bitwise Asset Management is a crypto specialist asset manager with over $12 billion in client assets. It’s the largest crypto index fund manager in America.

On Wednesday, the company filed an S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the Bitwise Aptos ETF. In November 2024, it filed to establish a trust entity for its proposed Bitwise Solana ETF in Delaware, USA.

Foundation for Wider Adoption

The partners argue that this and similar collaborations will set the stage for broader adoption. Institutional engagement in digital private credit keeps increasing, and regulated firms seek on-chain credit markets, actively exploring allocations to on-chain credit.

“Across all of our active solutions at Bitwise, we’ve always sought to take advantage of crypto-native investments that generate dynamic, uncorrelated returns,” said Jeff Park, Bitwise Head of Alpha Strategies and Portfolio Manager. The partnership with Maple, he added, will allow Bitwise and its clients to access these novel opportunities.

Meanwhile, Maple launched in 2021, becoming a preferred institutional venue for on-chain credit. It offers legal, technical, and risk management frameworks for institutions, issuing overcollateralized loans backed by the trillion-dollar digital asset class.

Its team says that Maple successfully navigated several market cycles, “delivering consistent, risk-adjusted yields that outperform traditional credit opportunities.”

SyrupUSDC now accounts for >20% of the @ether_fi Market-Neutral USD vault — further solidifying SyrupUSDC as a blue chip DeFi yield asset 💜🧡

Link to the vault below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7dC0F2AeRy

— Maple (@maplefinance) March 6, 2025

Also, the company introduced its SYRUP token in 2024. The Maple community users it for staking, governance, and shared protocol growth.

At the time of writing, SYRUP is trading at $0.1453. It’s up 1.8% in a day, 11% in a week, and 14% in a month.

It reached its all-time high of $0.3392 in November 2024, dropping 57% since.