Morpho Raises $175 Million Co-Led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital to Build ‘Open Credit Network’

Morpho, the onchain lending protocol, raised $175 million in a funding round co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital, the Morpho Association announced Tuesday. The protocol described the raise as among the largest in decentralized finance to date.

Strategic participants include Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, and Ledger Cathay, with the round also drawing Variant, Wintermute Ventures, Prelude, IOSG, Hashkey, Mirana, NJJ Capital, SBI Group, Bpifrance, and more than 10 other strategic partners. It is Morpho’s fourth institutional fundraise since 2021, with prior backers including a16z crypto, Ribbit, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Pantera Capital, and Nascent. Fortune reported the round valued the protocol at up to $2 billion, a figure that Morpho’s own announcement did not state.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The capital will deepen technical and commercial integrations and strengthen infrastructure for businesses building credit products. Morpho has crossed $11 billion in deposits and is used by institutional clients including Bitwise, Galaxy, and Anchorage Digital, by exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, and by brands including Ledger, Trezor, and Bitpanda.

“The true value of finance has always been held back by dated infrastructure, fragmented systems, and extractive intermediaries,” said Paul Frambot, cofounder of Morpho. “We’re building the open credit network for the world, connecting those with excess capital to those who need financing, globally.” Frankie, a general partner at Paradigm, said that in the years to come, every bank, asset manager, and pension fund will want exposure to onchain credit markets.

The round reflects how the institutional DeFi credit thesis has hardened despite this spring’s security incidents. Morpho cofounder Frambot said in April that the KelpDAO exploit delayed but did not derail TradFi’s onchain plans, with most institutions setting back deployment timelines three to six months. Gabe Mennesson, a partner at Ribbit Capital, said lending is the largest profit pool in financial services and called Morpho the most ambitious effort the firm has seen to rebuild the credit stack. The investor mix, spanning crypto-native funds and TradFi managers like Apollo and VanEck, positions Morpho as an institutional credit rail rather than a crypto-native lending venue alone.

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