Morpho Association, which supports the Morpho DeFi lending protocol, has raised $175 million in a round co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital. Strategic investors include Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck and Ledger Cathay, alongside Variant, Wintermute Ventures, Prelude, IOSG, Hashkey, Mirana, NJJ Capital, SBI Group and Bpifrance, among others. Apollo’s participation follows its February agreement to acquire up to 90 million Morpho tokens over four years, representing around 9% of maximum supply.
The protocol has attracted roughly $11 billion in deposits, of which approximately $3.5 billion has been lent out. Users include digital asset firms such as Bitwise, Galaxy and Anchorage Digital, as well as exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken and Binance. But traditional finance firms especially asset managers are interested. Apart from Apollo, fund administrator Apex has integrated with Morpho for collateral management.
“Lending is the largest profit pool in financial services, yet much of its infrastructure remains fragmented, opaque and inefficient,” said Gabe Mennesson, Partner at Ribbit Capital. “Some of the world’s leading institutions are already using Morpho to launch tokenized credit products, and we’re still in the early innings.”
Like Aave, Morpho is an overcollateralized lending protocol, meaning borrowers must post collateral worth more than their loan. But the architecture differs in ways that affect risk.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
