Core Foundation Sues Maple Finance Over Alleged Trade Secret Theft
The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has granted an injunction in opposition to Maple Finance over alleged breaches of its business partnership with Core Foundation to develop lstBTC, a liquid staked Bitcoin token launched earlier this yr that helped Maple safe over $150 million in shopper property.
The court docket ruling prohibits Maple from launching its competing product, syrupBTC, and from dealing in CORE tokens pending arbitration, whereas discovering critical benefit in Core’s claims of misuse of confidential info and exclusivity violations.
The dispute stems from a partnership shaped in early 2025 to create lstBTC, a product that allows Bitcoin holders to earn yield whereas sustaining their property with institutional custodians like BitGo.
Core Foundation alleges that by mid-2025, Maple started secretly creating syrupBTC, a rival providing that violated their 24-month exclusivity settlement, whereas persevering with to simply accept Core’s capital, assets, and confidential info.
From Partnership Success to Alleged Betrayal
Core Foundation and Maple Finance introduced their lstBTC partnership at Consensus Hong Kong in February 2025, concentrating on Bitcoin traders looking for yield with out sacrificing custody safety.
Core invested considerably in technical growth, advertising and marketing, and subsidies, whereas Maple launched with beneath $500 million in property.
The Bitcoin Yield providing’s April 2025 launch catalyzed explosive development for Maple, securing over $150 million in Bitcoin via an early over-the-counter model of lstBTC.
That early traction demonstrated sturdy product-market match for a Core-powered Bitcoin yield product, which Core claims turned the catalyst for Maple’s alleged pivot to competing infrastructure.
Core alleges that by mid-2025, Maple started misusing confidential info and work product whereas persevering with to simply accept assets to develop syrupBTC, a rival providing that violated their 24-month exclusivity settlement.
On September 26, 2025, Justice Jalil Asif KC dominated that there’s a critical subject relating to Maple’s alleged breach of exclusivity and misuse of confidential info, with the judgment printed on October 30, 2025.
Court Rules Damages Insufficient
The court docket decided that financial damages can be insufficient as a result of danger that Maple would get rid of CORE tokens and the irreversible head-start benefit a competing product launch would offer.
The injunction prohibits Maple from utilizing Core’s confidential info, launching syrupBTC or related merchandise, and dealing in CORE tokens with out written consent.
Rich Rines of Core DOA urged Bitcoin Yield lenders to “strongly take into account looking for unbiased authorized recommendation” earlier than signing Maple agreements.
To @maplefinance BTC Yield lenders: Before signing any settlement or waiver Maple sends you, strongly take into account looking for unbiased authorized recommendation. We don’t consider they’ve a proper to impair your BTC. The bankruptcy-remote construction, which was required by Core Foundation to… https://t.co/WzTwdFPW1N
— richrines.core
(@richrines) November 19, 2025
“We don’t consider they’ve a proper to impair your BTC,” he said, referencing the bankruptcy-remote construction Core required to guard lender principal.
Questions Over Lender Asset Access
Maple indicated it must declare impairment value thousands and thousands of {dollars} in opposition to Bitcoin Yield lenders, elevating questions on asset accessibility and authorized authority.
Core maintains the Bitcoin must be held safely with respected custodians in a bankruptcy-remote segregated portfolio, a construction Core particularly required throughout preliminary contracting to make sure property remained ring-fenced and will by no means cowl different Maple liabilities or exposures.
The lstBTC product featured hedged safety, with CORE value volatility managed via put choices procured from third events, with Core Foundation serving as one supplier.
Core honored each put expiry for months, paying out thousands and thousands of {dollars}, till it decided that it was immediately subsidizing a aggressive product following Maple’s alleged materials breaches.
As a results of this discovery, BitcoinYield removed Maple from its monitoring database, citing potential fund losses and pending litigation, whereas Maple has additionally eliminated the Bitcoin Yield product from its web site.
However, Maple denies wrongdoing and pledges to pursue “all out there treatments aggressively,” whereas Core maintains it would take authorized motion “so far as mandatory to guard the group.“
The crypto sector has witnessed related disputes lately, together with Citadel Securities suing Swiss start-up Portofino Technologies in 2023 over alleged commerce secret theft.
Citadel accused founders of secretly launching a crypto market-making agency whereas employed and of conducting clandestine investor conferences.
Moving ahead, Core Foundation says it would stay engaged with a number of groups for anticipated launches within the coming months whereas looking for new companions for Core-powered liquid staking merchandise.
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