The Morpho Association
The Morpho Association (”Association pour le Développement de la DAO Morpho” or “ADDMO”) is an incorporated French association (association loi 1901) whose main goal is to promote the development and adoption of the Morpho Protocol.
The Association allows the Morpho DAO to perform off-chain actions and manage relationships with strategic contributors such as research Institutes, development companies, freelance workers, advisors, etc. The Morpho Association is the owner of the intellectual property related to the Morpho Protocol, and as such, is also responsible for deploying different versions of the Morpho Protocol (before transferring ownership to the Morpho DAO), the MORPHO token contract, and hosting the Morpho front-end (app.morpho.org).
Past Funding, Spending, and Results
The Morpho Association funds the development and growth of the Morpho Protocol over multi-year periods. So far, the Morpho Association has raised $19.4M in 2021/2022 and has been using these funds to develop and grow the Morpho Protocol. This includes covering the cost of developers, research institutes, security firms that audit the code, marketing, and growth initiatives.
The Morpho Association has successfully established the Morpho Protocol as one of the leading DeFi projects in a relatively short time. The Morpho Association efforts have resulted in the deployment of Morpho Optimizers in 2022 and 2023 (Morpho-Compound, Morpho-AaveV2, Morpho-AaveV3), Morpho Blue and MetaMorpho in January 2024, as well as the Morpho Front-End and Morpho Stack modules (SDKs, APIs, etc). At the time of writing, deployed contracts hold over $3B in total deposits, making the Morpho Protocol one of the largest lending protocols in the world.
Current MORPHO Balance
MORPHO is the governance token for the Morpho protocol. It allows holders to guide Morpho’s future by voting on MIPs (Morpho Improvement Proposals) submitted to the Morpho DAO.
As of now, the Morpho Association holds a total of 5M MORPHO tokens.
- Initially minted
200MMORPHO - Spent on development and growth of Morpho:
195M - Remaining Balance =
5M
To accelerate Morpho’s growth trajectory and drive large-scale adoption, the Morpho Association will need additional MORPHO.
Request for MORPHO
The Morpho Association is requesting 120M MORPHO to support the ongoing development and growth of the Morpho Protocol.
This amount would allow the Morpho Association to continue to advance Morpho’s decentralized lending infrastructure, build a globally trusted brand, and scale go-to-market operations.
Advancing Morpho’s Decentralized Lending Infrastructure
- Research & development of future versions of the Morpho Protocol and periphery smart contracts
- Develop and maintain user interfaces to increase the accessibility of the Morpho Protocol’s smart contracts
- Supporting technical and strategic integrations of the Morpho Protocol
- Maintain the Morpho Protocol’s industry-leading security practices
Build a Globally Trusted Brand
- Increase the Morpho Protocol’s digital and physical presence
- Organize and execute global marketing campaigns
- Enhance educational content, thought leadership, and public engagements
Scale Go-To-Market Operations
- Develop and manage strategic relationships
- Expand into new geographic and industry markets
- Design and support key growth initiatives
Note that none of the requested MORPHO will go towards Early Contributors or Morpho Labs as a token reserve was already established by the Morpho DAO.
Burn and Mint of Tokens
As done with previously, the Morpho Association proposes minting the agreed amount and having the MORPHO DAO burn the equivalent amount. This will allow Morpho Association to apply new vesting conditions to the minted tokens while keeping maximum token supply at 1B MORPHO.
The process would work as follows:
- (1) The DAO burns 120M MORPHO tokens
- (2) The DAO removes the transferability right from the Morpho Association. This right today is what allows the Association to create vesting contracts for tokens sold to investors or allocated to contributors. This will act as a control mechanism.
- (3) The DAO gives a temporary minting right to the Association.
- (4) The Association uses it to mint 120M MORPHO tokens.
- (5) The DAO removes the minting right from the Association.
- (6) The DAO gives back to the Association the transferability rights
Illustrative MORPHO Distribution
The following chart illustrates MORPHO distribution if the Morpho Association were to be allocated 120M MORPHO tokens.
- The amount of MORPHO distributed to Users is subject to increase due to ongoing and future MORPHO rewards programs.
- The early contributors category includes MORPHO converted following a decision of the Morpho DAO from Morpho Early Contributor Tokens (MECT) which were initially allocated to Morpho Labs’ contributors, independent researchers, and advisors.
- The Reserve for Morpho Labs includes unallocated tokens set aside by the Morpho DAO for Morpho Labs contributors.
