Wall Street asset management giant Apollo Global Management has entered into a significant agreement with the Morpho Association, the French non-profit behind the Morpho decentralized lending protocol. The deal grants Apollo and its affiliates the right to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over the next four years, a stake valued at approximately $115.2 million at current prices.
This potential acquisition represents about 9% of the protocol's total governance token supply. Purchases may occur through open-market buys, over-the-counter transactions, or other arrangements, subject to ownership caps and transfer restrictions. Galaxy Digital UK acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Morpho for this agreement.
Beyond the token purchase, Apollo and Morpho announced a cooperation to support lending markets built on Morpho's infrastructure. Morpho provides on-chain lending markets and curator-managed vaults, with its protocol governed by MORPHO token holders.
The announcement has elicited mixed reactions from industry experts. Richard Galvin, CIO of Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM), viewed the institutional trend into the space as bullish. Conversely, Jeff Dorman, CIO of Arca, expressed caution, noting the language of Apollo's statement was vague and drawing parallels to a similar past arrangement with HASH where tokens were essentially acquired for free to announce network usage.
Despite the caution, the market reacted positively. MORPHO's price surged 12% in the 24 hours following the news, extending its recent recovery gains to 24%. On-chain data from Santiment showed that the Supply on Exchanges metric remained flat post-announcement, indicating holders were not rushing to sell into the relief bounce. CryptoQuant data also highlighted significant whale accumulation in the $1.0 to $1.3 consolidation range since late January.
Derivatives data showed a slight increase in speculative appetite, from $8 million to $12 million, though analysts suggest the rally is primarily spot-driven, which could support a more sustainable recovery. Technically, a breakout and firm reclaim of the $1.65 level (200-day Moving Average) could signal a bullish market structure shift with a potential target of $2, reducing the altcoin's late 2025 losses from over 40%.
This move is part of Apollo's expanding blockchain footprint, following a seven-figure investment last year in tokenization project PLUME. It also aligns with a broader trend of traditional finance giants exploring DeFi, highlighted by BlackRock's recent move to make its BUIDL fund tradable on Uniswap.
