Auros Misses $3.1M Loan Payment on Maple Finance

Auros, a crypto trading firm which claims on its LinkedIn profile to account for a “significant proportion of global cryptocurrency volume,” has missed a loan payment of 2,400 wrapped Ether (wETH), worth $3.1M as of Nov. 30. The news comes via M11 Credit, the counterparty which made the loan.

The missed payment has triggered a five-day grace period within which Auros will need to pay back the loan. M11 cited a “short-term liquidity issue as a result of the FTX insolvency,” as the reason for Auros’ missed payment.

Vetting Borrowers

M11 Credit made the loan to Auros on Maple Finance, a unsecured DeFi lending platform.

On Maple, crypto users deposit assets into pools which are managed by “Pool Delegates” like M11 Credit — those firms are responsible for vetting borrowers like Auros and negotiating terms. Both depositors and delegates receive a percentage of borrowers’ payments.

Delegates must also stake significant capital before gaining access to users’ deposits, according to Maple’s Wiki. This makes it so, if a borrower defaults, a delegate incurs a loss before depositors.

Interestingly, Auros borrowed 2,000 ETH ($2.6M) just three days ago through the M11-managed ETH pool, according to Maple’s interface.

M11’s loan to Auros is not currently in default, Charlotte Dodds, head of marketing at Maple, told The Defiant. Dodds added that users who lent wETH to the M11-managed pool won’t necessarily have to eat the loss and that Maple will provide a joint statement with Auros on Dec. 1 which will provide further clarity.

Maven 11, an investment firm of which M11 Credit is a subsidiary, declined to comment on Auros’ missed payment, but indicated that they are working with the trading firm to resolve the situation.

Unsecured Lending

Unsecured DeFi lenders have escaped relatively unscathed so far in the wake of FTX’s collapse. As of Nov. 14, Alameda Research, the now-bankrupt sister firm of FTX, owed $13M across all lending platforms.

Notably, Alameda Research owed $180M in loans via Maple as recently as May 12, according to a dashboard on Dune Analytics. And M11 in particular had made loans to Alameda earlier in the year before the trading firm closed out all exposure on Sep. 4, according to M11’s Twitter account.

M11’s loan to Alameda was the last time Maple’s depositors had direct exposure to the defunct trading outfit, according to a post by Maple. Auros’ missed payment,however, indicates that the unsecured lender has been indirectly affected by FTX’s collapse and that more secondary effects are possible.

Auros is active on other unsecured loan platforms like Clearpool, where the trading firm owes $2.4M across two pools. Its last repayment on Clearpool was for $24,000 in USDC on Nov. 27.

The firm is yet to respond to an email from The Defiant on Nov. 10, seeking information about potential losses stemming from FTX’s collapse.