Maple Finance’s strategy rift sends co-founder, COO to the exits

Two senior executives are leaving onchain asset manager Maple Finance over disagreements about the firm’s direction as its SYRUP token slid more than 7% Thursday.

Maple co-founder and executive chairman Joe Flanagan said Wednesday he would leave after seven years at the firm, describing a growing divide with fellow co-founder and CEO Sidney Powell.

“Over time, our views on strategy, leadership, and life have moved further apart,” Flanagan wrote. “I believe Maple is best served by one co-founder leading it forward from here.”

Chief operating officer Ryan O’Shea also said in a Thursday post on X that he would leave after nearly five years at Maple. “I’ll be stepping down as COO. I’ve come to a different view on the direction Maple should take, and I’ve decided it’s time to step aside,” he wrote.

SYRUP traded at $0.12 at 10:36 p.m. UTC Thursday, down 7.5% over 24 hours and 12% over the past week, according to CoinGecko. The token had a market capitalization of about $145 million.

Maple and Powell did not respond to Cointelegraph’s requests for comment by publication.

Maple says leadership shakeup will not disrupt anything

In a statement published Wednesday, Maple confirmed that Flanagan was stepping down as chairman and leaving the company. “This is an agreed and orderly transition,” the company said, adding that his responsibilities would move to Powell and Maple’s existing leadership team.

The company did not announce a replacement chairman or specify how the departing executives’ duties would be carried out.

Flanagan said his differences with Powell reached a point where they were no longer constructive. “I am choosing to leave rather than continue supporting a direction I cannot stand behind,” he said. Flanagan added that he would help with the transition through the end of 2026.

O’Shea is stepping down effective Nov. 27. “I’ll have no ongoing role after that,” he wrote.

The departures come as Maple looks to expand beyond crypto-backed lending. In October, Powell said the firm planned to reach more customers through fintech partnerships and lend against a wider range of assets, including payments owed on loans made by fintech companies and securities backed by assets such as mortgages.

Related: Kraken, Maple launch onchain warehouse facility for crypto-backed institutional loans

Revenue growth continues

The announcements come as Maple’s lending business continues to grow, while SYRUP is down 62% year to date and total value locked (TVL) has declined.

According to Token Terminal, Maple’s protocol revenue rose 8% year over year in October, while TVL fell around 11% between the end of September and Nov. 11.

Maple’s latest quarterly results also showed growth, with the company reporting $4.4 million in third-quarter revenue, up 5% from a year earlier. Assets under management rose 18% year over year to $4.7 billion.

Maple has also been using some of its revenue to buy back SYRUP tokens. In September, the company repurchased about 1.37 million tokens, twice as many as in August, according to its October update.