Maple Finance, a blockchain-based credit marketplace, announced on Tuesday that it will expand into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with a $5 million investment round. The round was led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital, with Cherry Ventures, The Spartan Group, GSR Ventures, Veris Ventures, Maven 11, and Framework Ventures also participating. CEO Sidney Powell said in a statement, “This funding round marks a pivotal moment in our evolution as we embark on a strategic expansion into the APAC region as part of a comprehensive growth plan for Maple.”
The expansion into Asia highlights the region’s growing importance in the digital asset industry. Asian countries have taken steps to create clear regulations for crypto firms to service consumers, in contrast to the regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. Maple’s focus on Asia comes as the platform is recovering from last year’s crypto deleveraging after the collapse of FTX. Maple also announced on Monday that it restarted its use of the Solana (SOL) network after eight months, expanding its stablecoin cash management offering to the network.
Maple Finance debuted a blockchain-based U.S. Treasuries facility in April, which has attracted $22 million of deposits since then. In June, the firm also set up a direct lending arm that targets web3 firms. Total value locked on Maple currently sits at $88 million, down from a peak of $938 million last May. Tokens of Maple Finance (MPL) were up nearly 2% at $4.96, at the time of writing.