[Proposal] Diversifying Treasury with Maple Finance – Institutional Yield + Boosted Rewards via Maple Drips

1. Summary

This proposal recommends allocating $100,000 from Gitcoin DAO’s treasury to Maple Finance’s institutional lending pools to earn predictable yield while diversifying away from a heavy GTC exposure.

I’m proposing a phased approach:

  1. Start with a 3-month commitment via Maple’s Drips rewards program to test the strategy while boosting returns.
  2. If the DAO is satisfied after that period, we can discuss extending to 6 months (for even higher rewards) and/or increasing the allocation.

2. Abstract

Gitcoin’s treasury today is heavily concentrated in GTC, which makes us vulnerable to market swings and limits our options to sustainably fund grants.

By converting $100,000 into stablecoins and deploying it in Maple Finance’s vetted institutional lending pools (USDC or USDT), we can earn ~6.3–6.6% base APY from overcollateralized loans to KYC’d borrowers like trading firms and market makers.

Committing this capital via Maple’s Drips rewards program for an initial 3-month period adds an average ~3.5% APY in additional rewards. That gives us a total target yield of ~9.8–10.1% while keeping risk manageable.

This “test-and-learn” phase lets us evaluate the strategy with minimal commitment before considering scaling it up.

3. Motivation

Treasury Diversification

Right now, most of our treasury sits in GTC (price risk) or idle stables earning little to nothing. That’s not a sustainable setup for a DAO that needs to keep funding grants and operations for years.

We need better diversification. Maple offers exposure to real credit markets in crypto, not DeFi yield farming games.

Why Maple Finance

Maple is trying to be DeFi’s credit layer for institutions. They’re not doing retail degen loans; they’re providing undercollateralized (but carefully underwritten) credit to trading firms and market makers with real KYC/AML processes.

They use Pool Delegates to approve borrowers and manage risk. These pools survived the 2022 meltdown and have gotten stricter in Maple V2. For us, it’s a way to earn stable, predictable yield by supporting real institutional lending activity on-chain.

Maple’s smart contracts are battle-tested, with multiple audits (Spearbit, Halborn) and an active Immunefi bounty program.

Why Syrup / Drips Rewards

Maple launched the Drips program to reward liquidity providers willing to commit capital for longer terms.

Here’s the simple model:

  • No commitment = 1x Drips
  • 3-month commitment = 1.5x Drips
  • 6-month commitment = 3x Drips

By committing for 3 months initially, we get 50% more Drips rewards than passive LPs. Drips rewards are distributed pro-rata and designed to encourage “sticky” liquidity that’s reliable for Maple’s borrowers.

This isn’t just about chasing APY. It’s about:

  • Earning more yield by being a committed LP
  • Helping DeFi credit markets become more stable and mature
  • Aligning our treasury strategy with Maple’s long-term approach to institutional lending

APY Example for USDC Pool:

  • Base APY: 6.3%
  • Avg Drips rewards: ~3.5%
  • Total expected APY: ~9.8%

By starting with 3 months, we keep risk and liquidity lockup manageable. Later, if the DAO is comfortable, we can increase allocation and go to 6 months for 3x Drips rewards.

Why This Matters for Gitcoin

This approach puts our treasury funds to work in a more productive way, earning yield while supporting credit markets that can help grow the broader crypto ecosystem.

It’s a step toward making our treasury work for us while helping the space mature.

4. Specification

Amount Proposed:

  • $100,000 worth of GTC or stablecoins

Deployment Steps:

  1. Treasury multisig converts GTC to USDC or USDT as needed.
  2. Deposit stablecoins into chosen Maple Finance Pool.
  3. Commit this position through Maple’s Drips program for 3 months (1.5x Drips rewards).
  4. Treasury committee monitors and reports quarterly on:
  • Base APY earned
  • Drips rewards accrued
  • Overall treasury diversification impact

Post-Test Plan:

  • After 3 months, the community reviews results.
  • DAO can vote to:
    • Extend to 6 months (3x Drips rewards).
    • Increase allocation.
    • Withdraw or reallocate if unsatisfactory.

Example Pools:

  • USDC Institutional Pool (~6.3% base APY)
  • USDT Institutional Pool (~6.6% base APY)
Pool Base APY AVG Drips Rewards APY Total Expected APY
USDC 6.3% ~3.5% ~9.8%
USDT 6.6% ~3.5% ~10.1%

5. Benefits

  1. Diversifies away from GTC price volatility
  2. Predictable yield: ~6.3–6.6% base APY + ~3.5% Drips rewards ≈ ~9.8–10.1% total
  3. Phased 3-month test reduces lockup risk
  4. Supports the growth of DeFi’s institutional credit layer
  5. Aligns with a responsible, sustainable approach to treasury management
  6. Rewards us for being a reliable LP, not just chasing short-term yield

6. Drawbacks / Risks

  • Smart contract risk – mitigated by audits and bounty program
  • Counterparty credit risk – borrower defaults possible, but Pool Delegate underwriting and overcollateralization mitigate this
  • Liquidity risk – minimum 3-month lock for the test period
  • Rewards variability – Drips program terms can change, and rewards depend on pool participation
  • Stablecoin risk – limited but present (USDC/USDT exposure)

Security Mitigations

  • Maple V2 improvements: better transparency, stricter underwriting
  • Multiple formal audits (Spearbit, Halborn)
  • Live Immunefi bug bounty
  • Pool Delegates can be replaced for poor risk management

7. Voting Options

  1. Yes – Approve allocating $100,000 in stablecoins from the treasury to Maple Finance lending pools, with an initial 3-month commitment via Maple’s Drips rewards program. After the 3-month period, the DAO will review performance and decide whether to extend to 6 months, increase the allocation, or withdraw.
  2. No – Do not allocate funds to Maple Finance or participate in the Drips rewards program.
  3. Abstain – I choose not to vote either way.
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I like the idea of diversification and making treasury assets productive. For instance Optimism recently enabled staking of their sequencer ETH.

Before doing anything like this though I think it is important that we understand the additional operational overhead that would come with something like this.

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Hey @jrocki.eth , thanks for the feedback.

I totally agree, it’s important to be realistic about the overhead before moving ahead. That’s actually part of why I framed this as a phased, 3-month test first. The idea is to start small, figure out the practical steps (like multisig execution, monitoring yield, reporting), and see if it’s something the DAO feels comfortable scaling or automating longer-term.

For this first 3-month commitment, I actually think the operational load is pretty light if we keep it simple:

  1. Multisig swap from GTC to USDC/USDT
  2. Deposit into Maple pool and commit with the 3-month Drips option (all in one UI)
  3. Light monitoring (just checking rewards and APY monthly)
  4. Two forum updates with yield and rewards details (one at the end of each of the first two months)
  5. Final Investment Report at the end of the 3-month commitment
  6. Proposal at the end of the 3-month commitment to decide whether to withdraw, roll forward, or increase the allocation.

That’s basically two transactions up front, basic tracking, and a final governance check-in.

The idea is to deliberately keep it small and easy for this test phase so the DAO can see if it’s worth scaling up or automating later.

If there are other operational concerns I’m missing, would love to hear them so we can plan for them early.

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gm @andret thanks for writing up this proposal.

can you provide URLs to the institutional lending pools?

Are you aware of the treasury diversification efforts with Avantgarde, can you outline how your approach is better?

How liquid are those lending pools? Is there any “cooldown” period before the unwinding is completed?

can you provide Docs to the Pools Architecture or URLs to the Audits?

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Hey @wasabi, happy to clarify and share some concrete references!

SyrupUSDC:
https://app.maple.finance/earn?_gl=1*1hdsamc*_ga*MTk4ODY3NzI1NS4xNzUxODg3NTUx*_ga_7GW90C7X77*czE3NTIwNzY3ODUkbzUkZzEkdDE3NTIwNzcwOTgkajU2JGwwJGgw

For clarity:

SyrupUSDC is considered a pool and it uses a segregated SPV structure, whereas Maple Pools (such as Maple’s Blue Chip pool) use segregated bankruptcy-remote entities for each individual pool.

SyrupUSDC yield is derived from a blend of Maple High Yield Secured and Blue Chip Secured lending pools (Maple Finance - you need to create a Maple account to view them), meaning it aggregates yields from multiple Maple pools rather than operating as a single isolated pool.

All the pools mentioned above use the same smart contract infrastructure and borrower network, but SyrupUSDC provides retail users simplified access to diversified institutional lending yields.

Yes, I’m aware of the Avantgarde proposal. I’m not saying that my approach is better, but this investment could be done in parallel with the Avantgarde one to improve diversification and risk mitigation. I see a few benefits in investing via Maple/Syrup, specifically in lending to institutional borrowers.

High Yields: Syrup targets 15% net APY and has consistently outperformed leading DeFi lending protocols through active management and high utilization. This outperformance comes from actively sourced deals and strategic loan duration management.

Enhanced Risk Management: Loans are overcollateralized with rigorous borrower underwriting, including KYC/AML checks and balance sheet assessments. Collateral is held with institutional-grade custody solutions like Anchorage and BitGo, with 24/7 monitoring and automated margin calls.

Professional Active Management: The Maple Direct team actively manages loan health through conservative liquidation levels (always above 100% collateralization) and proprietary alert systems with multiple price feeds.

Yield Enhancement: Beyond base lending rates, Maple stakes collateral through liquid and native staking, passing additional yield to lenders.

Institutional Borrower Quality: All borrowers are vetted institutions with operational sophistication to meet margin calls quickly in volatile markets, providing more predictable risk profiles than typical DeFi protocols.

The following are screenshots of the Maple High Yield Secured and Blue Chip Secured lending pools:

Idle Pool Liquidity: Amount of tokens currently sitting in the pool available to process withdrawals or fund loans.
Short-Term Liquidity: Amount of tokens currently sitting in yield-generating strategies available to be converted into immediate liquidity.

SyrupUSDC has moderate liquidity with a withdrawal queue system. Maple specifies that most withdrawals are processed in under 24 hours, but could take up to 30 days depending on available liquidity.

Regarding the withdrawal process:

  • Withdrawals are processed first-in, first-out as liquidity becomes available
  • Funds continue earning interest while in the withdrawal queue
  • Assets are sent directly to the lender’s wallet once processed

However, there’s also an instant liquidity alternative:

  • For immediate access, syrupUSDC tokens can be swapped via Uniswap or Balancer instead of using the withdrawal queue. This provides instant liquidity but the “swapper” will be responsible for any fees, slippage, and risks associated with the swap.

There’s no specific “cooldown” period - only committed deposits need to mature before becoming eligible for withdrawal.

On their website, after registering, you can access all the details (pool strategy, documentation, and monthly updates) about their pools.

These are the links:

  1. High Yield Secured Lending - DocSend
  2. Blue Chip Secured Lending - DocSend

Maple Documentation: https://docs.maple.finance/

Audit Information: Security | Syrup

Each Syrup supported lending asset has its own smart contract, and the addresses of these smart contracts are documented in their technical resources under Addresses:

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