Morpho, a decentralized lending protocol that runs on Ethereum, HyperEVM and other blockchains and currently has a total locked value of $6.6 billion, raised $175 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, Ribbit Capital and Andreessen Horowitz’s digital assets arm a16z crypto – valuing the protocol at up to $2 billion and preparing it for a possible public debut as its founders set their sights on launching Wall According to a Fortune report, the most classic Street institutions to DeFi published June 9.
Apollo Funds, Circle’s venture capital unit, and VanEck, a donor coalition that spans crypto-native venture capital, classic asset management and institutional finance, also participated in the round. The investment was structured in cryptocurrency and priced based on the token’s average monthly price, with the exact cost varying depending on when participants contributed, according to a Fortune report on co-founder Paul Frambot’s account.
ETH's price trends to the downside on the daily chart. Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview
25-year-old vs. TradFi
Frambot, who is 25 and founded Morpho in his 20s with three other French co-founders — Merlin Egalite, Julien Thomas and Mathis Gontier Delaunay — described the fundraiser with characteristic directness in an interview with Fortune. “I think TradFi will have to wear shorts,” he told the publication, a reference to the cultural gap between crypto’s sweatshirt and shorts maker community and the suit-wearing institutions he is now actively courting.
Its offer to these institutions is based on profitability. Morpho enables any user to create their own blockchain-based lending marketplaces with customizable risk parameters – effectively allowing anyone to build their own version of Aave, an incumbent DeFi lender that currently has nearly $12.5 billion in TVL, Fortune reports, citing DeFiLlama data. Morpho’s $6.6 billion in capital makes it the second-largest player in the decentralized lending space, a gap that has narrowed significantly following Aave’s significant exposure to a $290 million hack of other crypto protocols in April 2026, according to Fortune.
Ethereum and Crypto DeFi: Institutions Are Already Inside
Morpho’s existing user base signals that institutional crossover is already underway. According to Fortune reports, Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, and Galaxy Digital all utilize Morpho’s infrastructure. Guy Wuollet, general partner at a16z crypto, described this moment to Fortune as one in which classic finance professionals may need casual Fridays while DeFi founders dress up very subtly – a convergence he sees as the natural direction of an industry increasingly partnered with institutional capital.
Frambot himself recently attended an event at the Novel York Stock Exchange and wore pants. This development marks a pivotal moment for the emerging sector’s relationship with mainstream venture capital and classic finance.
The $175 million raise from three of the most prominent names in both cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and conventional investing—targeted at the same Wall Street institutions that have been cautiously circling DeFi for two years—is the clearest signal yet that decentralized lending is no longer an experiment with crypto insiders. It becomes the infrastructure that institutional capital intends to utilize.
Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chart from Tradingview
