Maple’s SYRUP Slides 24% in a Week, Underperforming Bitcoin and Ether

Maple Finance’s $SYRUP token fell 24.3% in the seven days to Oct. 19, sharply underperforming bitcoin and ether despite an increase in the lending protocol’s token buybacks.

The Defiant’s calculations using CoinGecko dollar-price samples at 11 a.m. ET put $SYRUP’s 28-day decline at 19.5%. Over the identical windows, bitcoin fell 0.4% and 4.2%, respectively, while ether lost 4.5% and 12.0%. $SYRUP subsequently reached a 28-day sampled low of about $0.1864 at 11:33 a.m. ET.

The token’s losses accompany a smaller decline in Maple’s lending assets. DefiLlama put total value locked at $2.71 billion on Oct. 19, compared with $2.98 billion in its Sept. 21 daily observation. $SYRUP is Maple’s governance token, distinct from syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT, its yield-bearing dollar products: the token’s price decline is not a measure of losses on those lending products.

Larger Buybacks Fail to Offset the Slide

Maple’s transparency dashboard displayed $2.68 billion in assets under management for syrupUSDC on Oct. 19. In its Oct. 16 monthly update, Maple also reported $1.67 billion in loans outstanding in its Q3 highlights, up 12% year over year.

The same update said September protocol revenue crossed $1.5 million, lifting the share allocated to buybacks under MIP-021 from 10% to 20%. Maple reported buying 1.37 million $SYRUP, about double August’s 0.68 million.

In an Oct. 9 post, Maple said it had completed the purchase, spending $314,116 for 1,371,166 $SYRUP at an average price of $0.229. The company emphasized that buybacks “are not a dividend, distribution, profit-share, or guaranteed return.” The larger purchases did not prevent the subsequent weekly decline.

Buybacks have been part of Maple’s token strategy since stakers voted to end staking rewards and redirect a portion of protocol revenue to the Syrup Strategic Fund in October 2025, as The Defiant previously reported.

Maple’s next scheduled community AMA is Nov. 11, according to its October update.