Morpho, an on-chain lending protocol, has just raised $175 million in a funding round co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital. Morpho's goal is to build what they call an "open credit network for the global market"—a decentralized lending infrastructure where capital flows can directly connect with borrowing needs on a worldwide scale.
According to Fortune, this funding round valued Morpho at $2 billion. In addition to the three lead investors, the round included participation from many big names such as Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Ledger Cathay, Variant, Wintermute Ventures, HashKey, SBI Group, and Bpifrance. Morpho stated that this was their fourth institutional funding round since 2021 and one of the largest deals in DeFi history.
The investment was made in the form of purchasing MORPHO tokens, with the price based on the average monthly price at the time each investor participated. Following the announcement, the price of MORPHO increased by more than 10%.
Morpho currently offers blockchain-based lending and borrowing markets, allowing users or organizations to create their own lending pools with their own risk criteria. For banks, asset management companies, fintech firms, exchanges, or crypto wallets, Morpho acts as a platform for them to design their own market conditions, rather than being constrained by a fixed set of protocol rules.
Co-founder Paul Frambot said Morpho is building an open credit network, connecting those with surplus capital with those in need of capital, on a global scale.
The new funds will be used to expand credit infrastructure, increase technical and commercial integration with strategic partners. Morpho said the protocol has surpassed $11 billion in deposits and now has many large institutional clients in crypto such as Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bitwise, Galaxy, and Anchorage Digital.
Paradigm predicts that in the next few years, banks, asset management companies, and pension funds will all want access to the on-chain credit market. Meanwhile, a16z crypto suggests that Morpho's technology has already begun to be adopted by large financial institutions, thanks to its simple, secure, and scalable design for lending and borrowing operations.
This also marks Ribbit Capital's next major bet on Morpho, following the fund's previous $50 million strategic funding round for the protocol in 2024.
Follow CoinMoi to stay updated on the hottest issues in the crypto market. Okay!!
The article "Morphoto Capital $175 million to develop credit infrastructure" first appeared on CoinMoi .
