DeFi Lending Protocol Morpho Raises $175 Million at $2 Billion Valuation in Round Led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital

Jun 9, 2026

DeFi lending protocol Morpho raised $175 million in a round led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital, valuing it at up to $2 billion. The funds will expand its 'open credit network' for institutional clients like Coinbase and Binance. With over $11 billion in deposits, the raise signals growing interest from traditional finance in on-chain credit markets, attracting investors like Apollo Funds.

Morpho $175M funding round

▪The funding round was co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital.
▪Other investors included Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Ledger Cathay, and Variant.
▪The investment, structured as a token purchase, valued Morpho at up to $2 billion.
▪Ribbit Capital also led Morpho's previous $50 million strategic funding round in 2024.
▪DeFi lending protocol Morpho raised $175 million in its fourth institutional fundraise since 2021.

DeFi lending protocol growth

▪The protocol has processed over $11 billion in deposits since its launch.
▪At the start of 2026, Morpho recorded $1.18 billion in active loans on the Base network, a tenfold increase from the previous year.
▪Morpho holds approximately $6.6 billion in total value locked (TVL), making it a major competitor to the dominant lender Aave.
▪The MORPHO governance token has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $1.85 billion.

Traditional finance crypto adoption

▪Morpho's successful raise occurred amid sector-wide stress, including a liquidity crisis at competitor Aave and a $285 million theft from Drift.
▪The funding round signals growing interest from traditional financial firms in using blockchain for credit markets.
▪French banking giant Société Générale is building on Morpho's platform.
▪Apollo Funds, an alternative-credit firm managing over $700 billion in assets, was a strategic participant in the round.

Morpho platform architecture

▪The platform allows users to create isolated lending markets with customized risk parameters, a feature known as curated lending vaults.
▪The new capital will be used to accelerate technical development and expand commercial integrations with banks, fintechs, and asset managers.
▪Morpho is a DeFi protocol for blockchain-based lending and borrowing, founded by Paul Frambot and three other French co-founders.
▪Morpho aims to build an "open credit network" to connect global capital with financing needs, addressing limitations of traditional finance.

Institutional DeFi users

▪Coinbase uses Morpho to power its program for customers to earn interest on stablecoins or take out crypto-backed loans.
▪Institutional users of Morpho include Bitwise, Galaxy, and Anchorage Digital.
▪Major crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance use the Morpho protocol.