Maple Finance mulls token buybacks
2025-01-14
Category: None

Maple Finance is considering using protocol revenues to buy back native SYRUP tokens and distribute them as rewards to stakers, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol said in a Jan. 13 governance proposal. 
The proposal, which awaits a tokenholder vote, would allocate 20% of Maple’s protocol revenues for monthly buybacks as an added incentive for stakers. Voting starts on Jan. 20, Maple said.
Buybacks would be sourced from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks. Maple has been earning around $5 million in annualized revenues from its onchain lending service as of Jan. 13, according to the proposal.
“By distributing repurchased tokens to SYRUP stakers, the DAO [decentralized autonomous organization] rewards those committed to the long-term health and growth of the Maple ecosystem,” Maple said in the proposal. 
Additionally, “[a]ligning the incentives of SYRUP stakers with protocol performance through rewards ties their interests to the protocol’s success.”
The buybacks will complement existing staker incentives from inflationary SYRUP emissions, Maple said. Per the proposal, stakers will receive 20% of new SYRUP emissions, or around 1% of SYRUP’s total supply annually. 
“Based on the current balance of staked SYRUP, the pro-forma rewards rate [from token emissions] for stSYRUP would be ~5.0% APY,” Maple said.
The remaining 80% of annual SYRUP emissions — or 4% of total supply annually — will stay in the protocol’s treasury, it said. 
The SYRUP token is currently trading at a roughly $88-million market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
Value-accrual in DeFi tokens
DeFi protocols are under increasing pressure to provide tokenholders with a share of protocol revenues, with projects such as Aave, Ethena and Ether.fi piloting value-accrual mechanisms for their native tokens.
This is partly because pro-crypto President-elect Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 US election win signaled the outset of a friendlier regulatory environment for DeFi protocols, asset manager Grayscale said in December. 
On Nov. 15, Ethena, a yield-bearing stablecoin issuer, agreed to share a portion of its roughly $200 million in protocol revenues with tokenholders.
In December, liquid restaking token (LRT) issuer Ether.fi proposed allocating 5% of protocol revenues to buy back native ETHFI tokens and distribute them to stakers. 