Decentralized lending protocol Morpho has raised $175 million in a new funding round, reportedly reaching a valuation of $2 billion. The round was co-led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Ribbit Capital, with significant participation from Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Ledger Cathay, and others. The investment is one of the largest in the DeFi sector this year and highlights growing institutional interest in on-chain credit markets.
Morpho, known for its order-book-style lending model that improves capital efficiency, plans to use the funds to deepen integrations with banks, fintechs, asset managers, and crypto platforms. The protocol already powers lending and yield products for major firms like Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Anchorage Digital, and Galaxy Digital, with Coinbase’s Morpho-powered loan service alone originating over $2.17 billion in USDC as of April 2026. The network boasts more than $11 billion in deposits, though DeFiLlama’s TVL metric for Morpho Blue clocks closer to $6.57 billion due to different measurement methods.
“We’re building the open credit network for the world,” Morpho co-founder Paul Frambot stated, emphasizing a shared infrastructure approach rather than replacing existing financial firms. Paradigm general partner Frankie added, “Every bank, asset manager, and pension fund will want exposure to onchain credit markets,” underscoring the long-term institutional thesis. The round also included investors such as Wintermute Ventures, HashKey, SBI Group, Bpifrance, and IOSG, further bridging crypto-native and traditional finance.
