Morpho raises $175M at $2B valuation for institutional DeFi push

Morpho Association has raised $175 million in one of decentralized finance’s largest funding rounds. 

Paradigm, a16z Crypto and Ribbit Capital co-led the investment, with Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck and Ledger Cathay also participating.

Fortune reported that the transaction valued Morpho at about $2 billion. Morpho’s official announcement did not publish a valuation, but said the capital would support technical development, commercial integrations and wider use of its open credit infrastructure.

Morpho funding brings major finance firms into DeFi credit

The round also included Variant, Wintermute Ventures, HashKey, SBI Group, Bpifrance, IOSG, Mirana and other investors. Several participants already operate across asset management, stablecoins, trading, custody and financial infrastructure.

“We’re building the open credit network for the world,” Morpho co-founder Paul Frambot said. He described the project as a shared system connecting capital providers with borrowers without depending on fragmented lending infrastructure.

Morpho said the network has more than $11 billion in deposits. DeFiLlama separately placed Morpho Blue’s total value locked near $6.57 billion. The figures use different measurements, with deposits counting supplied assets while TVL reflects DeFiLlama’s methodology.

Coinbase and institutions expand Morpho’s lending reach

Morpho is already used by Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Anchorage Digital, Galaxy Digital and Bitwise. Its software lets companies place lending and yield products inside their own platforms while settlements occur through blockchain-based markets.

As previously reported by crypto.news, Coinbase’s Morpho-powered loan service had originated more than $2.17 billion in USDC by April. Coinbase later expanded the product in the United Kingdom, allowing eligible customers to borrow up to $5 million against supported crypto assets.

Separately, as previously reported, Morpho went live on Tempo, the payments blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm. That integration gave fintechs and businesses access to lending, borrowing and yield products using stablecoins and tokenized assets.

Morpho targets an open institutional credit network

Morpho said it will use the funding to deepen integrations with banks, fintechs, asset managers and crypto platforms. The project does not aim to replace those firms. It plans to provide shared infrastructure that they can use to create credit products.

“Every bank, asset manager, and pension fund will want exposure to onchain credit markets,” Paradigm general partner Frankie said. The statement sets out the investors’ long-term expectation, rather than a confirmed adoption timeline.

The financing is Morpho Association’s fourth institutional raise since 2021. Earlier rounds brought backing from Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Variant, a16z Crypto and Ribbit Capital.

Morpho now faces the task of converting new capital and institutional partnerships into lasting borrowing demand. Its growth will depend on market liquidity, risk controls, regulation and the ability of integrated platforms to attract borrowers outside crypto-native markets at scale.