Cryptocurrency lending protocol Morpho raises $175 million to help DeFi on Wall Street

Decentralized lending protocol Morpho has secured $175 million in new funding, highlighting its continued demand. DeFi infrastructure Despite the series of recent setbacks this sector has witnessed.

The platform, which allows anyone to create isolated lending markets, described the raise as one of the largest funding rounds ever for a DeFi platform on Tuesday. advertisement. Previously, Morphew raised $68 million in funding across two rounds, according to Crunchbase.

With $11 billion in user deposits, the protocol has played a big role in promoting coordinated lending vaults, which are like funds and allow risk managers to set parameters by which users’ capital is automatically allocated to various cryptocurrency-backed markets.

Morphew said the round was co-led by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) — two of the largest venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency space — along with Ribbit Capital. The raise has attracted strategic support from Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures and VanEck, with participation from more than a dozen other companies, Morphew said.

It was protocol adopted Through leading exchanges like Coinbase and Binance, allowing customers to earn interest on stablecoins like Circle’s US dollars Or rope USDTOr get loans using digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum As a guarantee.

Morpho’s increase comes amid an uptick in DeFi exploits this year that has tested confidence in the sector, including… ghostLiquidity crisis –antiquities By exploiting KelpDAO hit — and Suspected theft $285 Million Drift by North Korea-Linked Hacking Group.

In the announcement, Morpheau noted that French banking giant Société Générale is already building on its platform, and that the protocol has ambitions to become a “common credit layer that allows banks, asset managers and fintech companies” to build programmable lending products.

“The true value of financing has always been hampered by legacy infrastructure,” Paul Frambaut, co-founder of Morpho, said in a statement. “We are building an open credit network for the world, connecting those with excess capital to those in need of financing globally.”

Morphew said the funds will be allocated to infrastructure development and business integration with strategic partners. Prior to its latest round, Morpho received backing from Coinbase, which used the platform to do so alive Bitcoin-backed lending program early last year.

As with other lending protocols, borrowers face liquidations on Morpho when the value of their collateral declines and exceeds a certain threshold, allowing third-party buyers to step in and purchase that money at a discount. Recently, Coinbase has seen an uptick in user losses.

Amid Bitcoin’s decline to a 19-month low, nearly 2,900 Coinbase customers were liquidated over the past week, according to Dune. Dashboard.

Upon liquidation broke out The stock market reached record levels in February, she said Decryption Its users are notified frequently when their loans are at risk, “up to every 30 minutes.”