Decentralized lending protocol Morpho raises $175M to build the world’s biggest open credit network
The decentralized lending protocol Morpho, widely regarded as the closest competitor to Aave, said today it has raised $175 million in funding led by three notable investors that increases its valuation to more than $2 billion.
Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital co-led the round, according to a report by Fortune. Additional participation came from Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Ledger Cathay, Variant, Wintermute Ventures, Prelude, IOSG, Hashkey, Mirana, NJJ Capital, SBI Group and Bpifrance. It’s the fourth time that Morpho has closed out an institutional fundraise, and it stands out as one of the largest rounds in the history of decentralized finance, the Morpho Association said.
According to Morpho’s X post announcing the round, the investment was structured as a token purchase, with investors receiving MORPHO tokens equivalent to the amount they invested at its monthly average price. That meant the cost of participation varied based on the time investors contributed, and it had the impact of driving MORPHO token prices up more than 10% in the wake of the report. Morpho co-founder Merlin Egalite said in a post on X that the round is “the largest raise in DeFi history.”
