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Morpho Association said it has entered into a cooperation agreement with certain affiliates of Apollo Global Management under which the parties will work together to support onchain lending markets on Morpho’s protocol, alongside a framework for Apollo or its affiliates to acquire MORPHO governance tokens. In its announcement, Morpho stated that any token purchases could be made via open-market purchases, OTC transactions, or other contractual arrangements, subject to an overall cap of 90 million MORPHO tokens over 48 months and unspecified transfer and trading restrictions, and that Galaxy Digital UK Limited acted as Morpho’s exclusive financial adviser.
Morpho’s documentation lists a maximum MORPHO token supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, a figure used by Cointelegraph’s report (republished via TradingView) to characterize the 90 million token cap as 9% of total supply. Cointelegraph’s report also referenced DeFiLlama data to describe Morpho as a large onchain lending venue by total value locked at the time of publication, situating the Apollo arrangement within a broader pattern of institutional engagement with onchain credit infrastructure.
Apollo has recently publicized multiple initiatives that connect traditional credit strategies to tokenized or onchain distribution channels. In 2025, Apollo said it would provide tokenized access via Securitize to the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED). Separately, Coinbase and Apollo announced a strategic partnership to develop stablecoin credit strategies, reflecting continued experimentation with token-based rails for credit products.
From a regulatory-operational standpoint, Morpho’s Terms of Use define “crypto-asset” by reference to the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and set out restrictions for users in “Restricted Territory,” including prohibitions on circumventing controls via VPNs—constraints that can matter for institutional onboarding and cross-border access to onchain credit venues even when transactions occur on public networks.
For market participants, the immediate effect is limited to what Morpho describes publicly: a cooperation agreement aimed at supporting onchain lending markets and a conditional pathway for Apollo or its affiliates to acquire MORPHO governance tokens over time, subject to a stated cap and restrictions. Issuers and tokenization platforms that rely on onchain credit, investors assessing governance and concentration risk, and compliance teams tracking institutional participation in DeFi governance are the most directly exposed; the announcement does not disclose the identity of the Apollo affiliates involved or the details of transfer and trading restrictions.
