Morpho Association has raised $175 million in one of the larger funding rounds seen in decentralized finance, as demand for onchain credit infrastructure keeps drawing institutional capital. Fortune reported the deal valued Morpho at about $2 billion. Morpho’s own announcement did not disclose a valuation, saying only that the new capital would fund technical development, commercial integrations, and broader use of its open credit infrastructure.
The round was co-led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto and Ribbit Capital, with Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck and Ledger Cathay also joining. Other investors included Variant, Wintermute Ventures, HashKey, SBI Group, Bpifrance, IOSG and Mirana. Many of those firms already operate across asset management, stablecoins, trading, custody and financial infrastructure.
Morpho pitches shared credit rails for institutions
Co-founder Paul Frambot said Morpho is building “the open credit network for the world.” He described the project as a shared system designed to connect capital providers with borrowers without relying on fragmented lending infrastructure. The message is straightforward: Morpho is positioning itself less as a standalone lending venue and more as core infrastructure that other firms can build on top of.
Morpho said its network now holds more than $11 billion in deposits. Separately, DeFiLlama put Morpho Blue’s total value locked at roughly $6.57 billion. The two figures are not directly comparable, since deposits count supplied assets while TVL follows DeFiLlama’s methodology.
Coinbase and other platforms already use Morpho
Morpho is already being used by Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Anchorage Digital, Galaxy Digital and Bitwise. Its software allows companies to embed lending and yield products inside their own platforms while settlement happens through blockchain-based markets. That structure keeps Morpho in the background, but it also expands the project’s reach through established financial and crypto brands.
As previously reported, Coinbase’s loan product powered by Morpho had originated more than $2.17 billion in USDC by April. Coinbase later expanded that service in the United Kingdom, where eligible users can borrow up to $5 million against supported crypto assets. Morpho also went live on Tempo, the payments blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, giving fintechs and businesses access to lending, borrowing and yield products using stablecoins and tokenized assets.
New capital is aimed at bank and asset manager integrations
Morpho said it will use the funding to deepen integrations with banks, fintechs, asset managers and crypto platforms. The project said it is not trying to replace those firms. Instead, it wants to provide shared infrastructure they can use to launch their own credit products. Paradigm general partner Frankie said that every bank, asset manager and pension fund will want exposure to onchain credit markets, framing the investment case as a long-term view rather than a confirmed adoption schedule.
This marks Morpho Association’s fourth institutional raise since 2021. Earlier rounds included backing from Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Variant, a16z Crypto and Ribbit Capital. The next test is practical: whether Morpho can turn fresh capital and institutional partnerships into durable borrowing demand. That will depend on liquidity, risk controls, regulation, and whether integrated platforms can attract borrowers at scale beyond crypto-native markets.