Maple’s price surged sharply on Friday as demand for the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem continued to grow. MPL climbed to a high of $61.30, its highest level since April 17. MPL has risen more than 23% from this month’s low, pushing its total market capitalization above $296 million.
What is Maple and why is its price rising?
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is one of the largest sectors in the blockchain industry, with assets totaling more than $210 billion. That is a substantial amount of capital, especially given that this sector barely existed a few years ago.
Maple is a DeFi platform that offers services similar to other popular networks. It describes itself as a crypto capital market by providing unsecured loans to institutional borrowers. The network accepts funds, or liquidity, from users seeking yield and then extends that capital to institutions.
According to the platform’s website, Maple has originated loans totaling more than 1.2 billion USD Coin (USDC). From those loans, lenders have received interest payments totaling over 24.4 million USDC. At the time of writing, the platform has issued roughly 82 loans.
Some of the lending pools on Maple Finance have been utilized by institutional players such as Celsius, BlockTower Capital, Alameda Research, and Orthogonal Trading. Alameda Research was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX.
Maple’s price has climbed alongside an increase in the protocol’s total value locked (TVL). According to DeFi Llama, the network now holds more than $82.4 million in TVL, a figure significantly higher than levels seen in March of this year.
Maple price outlook
Maple’s price has been in a bullish trend over recent days. The token has jumped more than 22% from this month’s lows. It has moved above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages, while the MACD indicator has crossed above its neutral line. Maple has also traded above a key support level at $51.32, a level it tested several times this month without breaking below.
These technical signals suggest bulls currently hold control, and the token may continue rising as buyers target the next major resistance around $68.88. A drop below the $51 support would negate the bullish view and could lead to further downside.