Cryptocurrency lending firm Maple Finance has partnered with crypto staking specialist Lido Finance

The collaboration gives institutions the ability to borrow stablecoins without having to unwind their staked ETH positions.

Cryptocurrency lending firm Maple Finance has partnered with crypto staking specialist Lido Finance to offer stablecoin credit lines backed by collateral in the form of liquid staked ETH (stETH) from Lido.

The collaboration, announced Thursday, gives institutions the ability to borrow stablecoins without having to unwind their staked ETH positions.

Borrowers can use stETH as collateral for credit lines that are underwritten by Maple’s in-house credit team.

Lido’s stETH is a liquid version of staked ETH that can be put to work in decentralized finance (DeFi), while still earning rewards from staking. Meanwhile, the staking yields from stETH can be plowed back into earning more yield in DeFi.

Restaking - the idea of using one blockchain to secure other apps - has quickly become a new investment trend in crypto. As such, Lido is exploring ways to make stETH return-bearing.

Maple, which has over $1.8 billion of assets on its platform, has been busy forging partnerships to bring new assets and capital flows into the DeFi ecosystem.

Recently, Maple partnered with Cantor Fitzgerald to do bitcoin-backed loans.

“This partnership with Maple builds on the growing demand from institutions already using stETH in their capital strategies,” said Jakob Berner, CEO and Co-Founder of Lido. “By enabling loans backed by stETH, we’re making it easier for institutions to access liquidity while keeping their core assets staked and productive.”

The offering serves a range of institutional use cases including treasury runway extension, conservative leverage trading, and short-term working capital, according to a press release.