Solana News Today: Maple Integrates syrupUSDC as Yield-Bearing Collateral on Drift Protocol

Maple Finance, the largest on-chain asset manager by assets under management (AUM), has integrated syrupUSDC as a yield-bearing collateral asset for perpetual futures trading on Drift Protocol. The integration allows traders on Solana's second-largest perpetuals decentralized exchange (DEX), which holds $1.21 billion in total value locked (TVL), to earn between 7% and 8% APY on margin collateral while maintaining active positions [1].

This marks the first use case for syrupUSDC in perpetual trading, offering enhanced capital efficiency in DeFi by enabling traders to generate passive income or offset funding costs without withdrawing assets from their positions. The deployment aligns with Drift Protocol's cross-margin architecture, which supports the use of syrupUSDC alongside other collateral types, a feature less common among decentralized exchanges that typically restrict collateral to USD or USDC [1].

To drive adoption, Maple has allocated $100,000 in incentives and set an initial supply cap of $50 million for syrupUSDC on Drift. This follows the token's expansion to Solana in June, where it was initially deployed on platforms like Kamino and Orca with $30 million in liquidity. Within two weeks, $60 million of syrupUSDC was minted on Solana, supported by Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol [1].

SyrupUSDC has rapidly become one of DeFi’s fastest-growing yield-bearing stablecoins, with $1.9 billion in AUM. The yield is generated through Maple’s institutional lending pools, which delivered 5.2% APY on Bitcoin yield products and 9.2% on high-yield products in Q2 2025 [1].

Sid Powell, CEO of Maple, highlighted that the integration opens “otherwise unavailable possibilities for traders to do more with their capital,” enabling them to trade, earn, and compound returns simultaneously. With $3.24 billion in AUM—surpassing BlackRock in on-chain AUM—Maple has raised its year-end target to $5 billion and aims to become a key player in Solana’s expanding DeFi ecosystem [1].

The launch positions syrupUSDC as a viable margin collateral option for upcoming listings on other protocols, potentially establishing a new standard for integrating yield-bearing stablecoins into leveraged trading environments.

Source: [1] Maple launches first perpetual trading use case for syrupUSDC on Drift Protocol (https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/689d6e65b20e7a74aa5a3a00/)