Morpho raises $175M led by Paradigm and a16z; token +7.5%

Morpho Association raised $175 million in a funding round co-led by Paradigm, a16z Crypto and Ribbit, the association disclosed in a blog post. The MORPHO token climbed about 7.5% over 24 hours as the broader crypto market declined nearly 2%.

The round included institutional investors such as Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Ledger Cathay, Variant, Wintermute Ventures, SBI Group and Bpifrance, along with more than a dozen other partners. Morpho’s earlier backers include Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital and Variant; the association noted this is its fourth institutional raise since 2021.

The association described the capital as intended to deepen technical and commercial integrations with existing and new partners and to support development of on-chain lending infrastructure.

Paul Frambot, cofounder of Morpho, wrote in the announcement: “The true value of finance has always been held back by dated infrastructure, fragmented systems, and extractive intermediaries. We started Morpho to change that. We’re building the open credit network for the world, connecting those with excess capital to those who need financing, globally.”

Morpho manages more than $11 billion in deposits and is integrated with exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken and Binance. Institutional users include Bitwise, Galaxy and Anchorage Digital.

At the time of reporting, MORPHO traded near $1.93, up roughly 7.5% on the day. The token has fallen about 5.7% over the past week and roughly 12% over the past month, and it sits about 54% below its January 2025 all-time high of $4.17.

The association did not provide a detailed breakdown of how the funds will be allocated beyond the stated focus on integrations and technical development.