Maple Finance Strategy Rift Prompts Co-Founder and COO to Leave

Maple Finance co-founder Joe Flanagan and Chief Operating Officer Ryan O’Shea are leaving the company after disagreements over its direction, as the firm’s SYRUP token fell more than 7% Thursday. According to Cointelegraph, Flanagan said Wednesday that he would leave after seven years at Maple, citing a growing divide with fellow co-founder and CEO Sidney Powell. Flanagan said their views on strategy, leadership and life had moved further apart, and that he believed Maple would be best served by one co-founder leading it. O’Shea said in a Thursday post on X that he would step down after nearly five years, explaining that he had reached a different view on the company’s direction. SYRUP was trading at $0.12 at 10:36 p.m. UTC Thursday, down 7.5% over 24 hours and 12% over the past week, with a market capitalization of about $145 million, according to CoinGecko. Maple and Powell did not respond to Cointelegraph’s requests for comment by publication. Maple said Wednesday that Flanagan was stepping down as chairman and leaving the company in an agreed and orderly transition, with his responsibilities moving to Powell and the existing leadership team. The company did not name a replacement chairman or explain how the departing executives’ duties would be handled. Flanagan said he would help with the transition through the end of 2026, while O’Shea said his departure would take effect Nov. 27 and that he would have no ongoing role afterward. The departures come as Maple seeks to expand beyond crypto-backed lending. In October, Powell said the company planned to reach more customers through fintech partnerships and lend against a broader range of assets, including payments owed on loans made by fintech firms and securities backed by assets such as mortgages. Maple’s protocol revenue rose 8% year over year in October, while its total value locked fell around 11% between the end of September and Nov. 11, according to Token Terminal. Third-quarter revenue reached $4.4 million, up 5% from a year earlier, and assets under management rose 18% year over year to $4.7 billion. The company repurchased about 1.37 million SYRUP tokens in September, twice as many as in August.