Key Takeaways
What triggered the feud?
Core believes that Maple has breached a 24-month exclusivity period agreement by unveiling a rival yield product.
How are lenders affected?
The yield product, lstBTC, was initially funded by $150M BTC from lenders, yet it was not clear whether they would be reimbursed.
Institutional-focused DeFi lending firm Maple Finance has made headlines today for allegedly breaching a contract and stealing its partner, Core Foundation’s Bitcoin [BTC] yield product.
On X (formerly Twitter), Maple Finance distanced itself from the claims and blamed the Core Foundation for “directly going against lender interests.”
The firm added,
Source: X
Core Foundation claims
Core Foundation has been a partner in the Maple Finance ecosystem, developing a BTC yield product, LstBTC.
The ERC-20 token enables holders to maintain liquidity across various DeFi platforms while earning a yield. The product was co-developed in early 2025 and officially rolled out in April.
Per the Core team, they had a 24-month exclusivity agreement with Maple. However, Maple Finance has reportedly prepared a similar product, syrupBTC, a move Core Foundation claimed breached the agreement and misused their confidential data.
Notably, the Core Foundation stated that it had successfully obtained a restraining order against Maple Finance for the alleged breach.
The team further slammed the DeFi lending protocol for failing to reimburse lenders the initial $150 million BTC, adding that,
Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi has picked up traction lately, primarily dominated by Babylon [BABY] and Lombard.
However, other Bitcoin Layer 2 players, such as Core, have also emerged. As of the time of writing, Babylon holds a 66% market share.
Source: Bitcoin Yield
However, the yield has dropped in line with the broader market rout, from 3.19% to 3.0% over the past week.
That being said, SYRUP, the native token of Maple Finance, dropped 3% to $0.35 following the update. The Core ecosystem also experienced a 2% drop in its TVL (total value locked) to $50 million over the past 24 hours.
It remains to be seen how the case will be resolved and whether initial BTC lenders will be made whole again.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/maple-denies-stealing-cores-lstbtc-will-be-pursuing-all-available-remedies/
