- Maple Finance has added EtherFi’s weETH as collateral, providing institutional borrowers with a new way to access USDC loans.
- With over $5.3B of weETH in circulation, this integration reflects the rising influence of restaking in DeFi.
Maple Finance has added support for EtherFi’s weETH as collateral for its lending platform, signaling a move toward integrating Ethereum’s emerging restaking economy into institutional credit markets. The move not only diversifies Maple’s lending collateral base but also responds to growing institutional interest in restaked assets.
This integration allows qualified borrowers—including DAOs, treasuries, and fund managers—to secure overcollateralized USDC loans using weETH. As part of the launch incentive, Maple is offering a limited-time 2% APY rebate in ETHFI tokens for the first $50 million in loans.
“As staking continues to mature, we’re seeing restaked assets like weETH take on a more central role in how institutional capital allocates on-chain,” said Maple Finance CEO and Co-Founder, Sid Powell.
“This integration reflects our long-term view that staking is not just a yield source, but a foundation for the next generation of collateral and credit markets,” Sid added.
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Why It Matters: Institutional Access to Ethereum’s Restaking Layer
Restaking is becoming a key narrative in DeFi, especially with protocols like EigenLayer and EtherFi driving innovation. EtherFi’s weETH—representing liquid restaked ETH—has grown to over $5.3 billion in supply, with more than 65,000 holders. Its utility in DeFi is well documented: approximately 75% of weETH is already deployed as collateral across protocols like Aave.
Maple’s integration introduces a new venue for institutional capital to engage with weETH, offering not just yield but liquidity and credit access. With a minimum loan size of $5 million and two-month terms, the structure clearly targets professional investors seeking capital efficiency from staked assets.
According to Galaxy Digital’s recent report, institutional demand for restaking is expected to rise sharply as staking yields compress. The firm projects the restaking market to exceed $15 billion in assets by early 2026, driven by increased composability, reward stacking, and collateral use cases.
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Institutional DeFi Is Growing—and Maple Wants to Lead
Maple’s strategy to attract institutional users has evolved rapidly since its pivot into the on-chain credit space. The protocol, which previously focused on undercollateralized crypto-native lending, now aims to support high-quality, yield-generating assets like restaked ETH. Its compliance-first model and scalable architecture make it a strong contender as TradFi players explore DeFi rails.
The introduction of weETH lending aligns with broader developments in institutional DeFi. Franklin Templeton and BlackRock have both explored tokenized treasuries and blockchain-native collateral frameworks. Similarly, Coinbase Cloud and Fireblocks are expanding custody and staking infrastructure to accommodate restaking strategies.
In this context, Maple’s move is timely. It positions the platform to support the next wave of DeFi participants—those who demand capital markets infrastructure with the transparency and speed of blockchain.
Maple’s Future Roadmap: Expanding the Restaking Credit Stack
This is only the first step in Maple’s broader roadmap. The team plans to integrate other Ethereum staking and restaking derivatives, offering a more diverse collateral base. As Ethereum transitions into a modular data-availability layer through proto-danksharding and rollup scaling, staking derivatives will become even more central to capital flows.
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Image Credits: Maple Finance
