Morpho's $175M raise shows where crypto VC money is flowing
Investors are increasingly backing stablecoin and credit infrastructure rather than decentralized finance (DeFi) lending alone, with Morpho Labs latest funding round drawing attention to onchain credit markets, according to Spark CEO Sam MacPherson. Morpho announced Tuesday that it raised $175 million in a round led by Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital. While Morpho is widely known as a DeFi lending protocol, the company said that it aims to become a credit infrastructure layer for banks, asset managers and fintechs. Onchain credit markets allow users and institutions to borrow, lend and deploy capital using blockchain-based assets. Investors are betting the sector will grow alongside stablecoins and other tokenized financial products. As stablecoins scale, “credit becomes one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the stack,” MacPherson told Cointelegraph. Morphos growing role as lending infrastructure Morpho has a total value locked (TVL) of $6.72 billion and about $3.47 billion in active loans, according to DeFiLlama data. Risk management platform Sentora said in a Friday newsletter that the figures indicate “significant liquidity depth.” Morphos total value locked and active loans have climbed sharply since late 2024.Source: DeFiLlama Sentora also pointed to Coinbases use of Morpho smart contracts to originate more than $2.17 billion in corporate USDC loans as