The Transformation of Decentralized Lending
Decentralized finance lending has come a long way since 2017, when early platforms like ETHLend (now Aave) and Compound pioneered crypto-based borrowing and lending. These initial systems allowed users to lend and borrow without the need for banks or centralized platforms, relying instead on ETH as collateral. As the sector matured in 2018, new innovations such as pooled liquidity, delegated credit, flash loans, stablecoin support, and gas cost optimizations reshaped the experience, making it more dynamic and capital efficient.
Why we invest in Morpho
Morpho emerged from a desire to address the inefficiencies and structural limits of existing DeFi lending models. The protocol introduces a novel approach that blends peer-to-peer matching with pooled lending to minimize the interest rate gap between borrowers and lenders. Unlike conventional DeFi platforms that rely on external risk evaluators, Morpho empowers users to choose how and by whom risk is assessed. This design has contributed to the protocol crossing the $2 billion milestone in supplied capital, making it one of the fastest-scaling DeFi projects to date.
Recently, Morpho introduced Morpho Blue, a foundational framework for permissionless, overcollateralized lending involving any crypto asset. It’s a versatile base layer that supports composability for developers building advanced applications on top of it. One such extension is MetaMorpho, a vault-based infrastructure that enables risk professionals to deploy strategies that automatically allocate user funds across different Morpho Blue markets.
The project is led by a technically adept team that began collaborating during their university years. CEO Paul Frambot brings deep blockchain knowledge from his academic background at TelecomParis and École Polytechnique. Merlin Egalite contributes years of engineering experience from projects like The Commons Stack and Kleros. Mathis Gontier Delaunay, formerly a VP at Kryptosphere, now heads research, while Julien Thomas, a data specialist from Polytechnique Montreal, oversees the development lifecycle.
We’re proud to invest $2.5M in Morpho as they reimagine the future of decentralized lending.
To explore Morpho’s technology in greater detail, visit their website or check out their Dune Analytics dashboard.