Why USDC:MPL?
While the staking system may be modified with future governance initiatives, the initial pools require BPTs created from the MPL:USDC Balancer pool. The tokens in the stake locker contract must be easily liquidated in order to provide cover for lenders under default conditions. In order for this to happen:
MPL needs a liquid decentralized marketplace
Liquidation of MPL needs to produce the lending pool liquidity asset (USDC)
For these reasons, the MPL:USDC 50:50 pool will be the first pool token used for staking as pool cover for the Maple protocol.
In addition to the reasons listed above, MPL is an ERC-2222 token that might receive USDC rewards sent by the Maple DAO Treasury in the future. In order for MPL staked in a DEX to take advantage of those rewards, they need to be paired with USDC. MPL pools paired with another token will not be able to reap reward from a future distribution of USDC fees by the DAO.
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