Maple Finance and Icebreaker Launch Lending Pool for Bitcoin Miners

Major DeFi lender Maple Finance has launched a capacity pool worth $300 million for Bitcoin mining companies.

The development comes despite the sharp decline in BTC’s price and the reduced injection of capital into the mining sector.

Maple Opens Up Fully-Collateralized $300 Million Lending Pool

According to an announcement on Tuesday (September 20, 2022), the new fund targets “public and private blue-chip bitcoin mining and digital asset infrastructure companies” based in North America and Australia.

Today, @IcebreakerDeFi joins Maple and opens a $300M capacity pool to provide secured debt financing to blue-chip Bitcoin mining and digital asset infrastructure companies. pic.twitter.com/ZWyLV2P9hr

— Maple (@maplefinance) September 20, 2022

The pool offers underlying loans with a tenor of 12-18 months, along with an interest rate between 15-20%. Australian financial services firm Icebreaker Finance will manage and administer the loans via Maple’s platform. Funding will be administered to borrowers based on the balance sheet strength, operational efficiency, and financial performance.

Furthermore, loans will be secured by either real-world assets like mining rigs and power transformers or digital assets.

Commenting on the latest development, Icebreaker Finance founder and CEO Glyn Jones said:

“The market is now maturing to appreciate that non-recourse SPV ASIC backed financing can be inappropriate given the volatility in value of ASICs. Instead, a more diverse security package is required.  Maple’s out-of-the-box, on-chain lending toolkit enables us to align incentives of lenders and borrowers to execute loans on-chain with terms that reflect the emerging nature of the industry more efficiently than we could elsewhere.”

Financing Woes for Bitcoin Miners

The news is coming amid a turbulent period for bitcoin miners in the area of securing financing for their operations. The crypto bear market has seen mining firms struggle to secure loans and pay back creditors.

Back in June, bitcoin miners were struggling to repay loans worth about $4 billion, which were backed by their equipment. As previously reported by CryptoPotato, Bitcoin miner Core Scientific sold over 7,000 BTC in June alone, for an average price of $23,000 per coin, leaving the company with 1,959 BTC in its coffers.

The company later entered an agreement with the investment firm B. Riley, which will see the latter purchase $100 million in common stock of Core Scientific over two years.

Maple Finance co-founder and CEO Sidney Powell said:

“Recent market headwinds have caused lenders to pull back, while traditional financing vehicles have been slower to engage this sector. Miners play an essential role in growing the crypto ecosystem and local economies, and we are proud to extend a new financing vehicle to direct capital where it is needed the most.”