The MORPHO token

MORPHO is the Morpho Protocol's governance token. The Morpho DAO — made up of MORPHO holders and delegators — governs the Morpho Protocol. The governance system uses a weighted voting system in which the number of MORPHO tokens held determines voting power.

MORPHO holders can vote on changes or improvements to the protocol, see this section to get the exhaustive list of actions.

Legacy and Wrapped MORPHO

The original, now legacy, MORPHO token was deployed as an immutable contract and lacked functionality associated with onchain vote accounting. The Morpho DAO voted to create a contract to wrap the legacy tokens into wrapped MORPHO to enable onchain vote tracking functionality in MIP-75.

In addition to onchain vote tracking, using an upgradeable token makes it possible to conform to a crosschain interoperability standard in the future, minimizing friction for MORPHO holders who want to move their tokens between chains.

Although legacy MORPHO tokens can be freely converted to wrapped MORPHO 1:1 via the wrapper contract, there could be a risk that legacy tokens might be used mistakenly in external integrations, such as exchanges. To prevent this, only the wrapped MORPHO will be transferable. Users can easily wrap their existing legacy MORPHO tokens on the Morpho App.

MORPHO Token Addresses

Same as defined in the addresses section.

Wrapped Token

Ticker: MORPHO

Ethereum contract address: 0x58D97B57BB95320F9a05dC918Aef65434969c2B2

Base contract address: 0xBAa5CC21fd487B8Fcc2F632f3F4E8D37262a0842

Deployed: November 10, 2024

Maximum Supply: 1,000,000,000 MORPHO

Legacy Token

Ticker: MORPHO

Contract Address: 0x9994E35Db50125E0DF82e4c2dde62496CE330999

Deployed: 24 June 2022

Maximum Supply: 1,000,000,000 MORPHO

Wrapper contract

Address: 0x9D03bb2092270648d7480049d0E58d2FcF0E5123 (only on Ethereum)

Token Distribution & Vesting

The overall distribution of MORPHO tokens, including vested and unvested allocations, as of 7 November 2024.

Morpho DAO

35.4% of MORPHO tokens are owned and controlled by the Morpho DAO. Holders of the MORPHO token can vote on how these tokens are used.

Users & Launch Pools

4.9% of MORPHO tokens have been distributed from the Morpho DAO to users of the Morpho Protocol and launch pool participants. MORPHO tokens will continue to be distributed under the scalable rewards model until the Morpho DAO votes to amend it.

Morpho Association

6.3% of MORPHO tokens are allocated to the Morpho Association for ecosystem development. This allocation can be used to fund partnerships, contributors, and any other initiatives that help grow the Morpho Protocol and advance Morpho’s network.

Reserve for Contributors

5.8% of MORPHO tokens are reserved for contributors to the Morpho Protocol for their role in the development and growth of the network. This reserve includes unallocated tokens set aside by the Morpho DAO for future contributors to the Morpho Protocol such as employees of Morpho Labs, service providers, contractors, and research institutes.

Strategic Partners

27.5% of MORPHO tokens have been allocated to Strategic Partners tokens in exchange for providing support — monetary or otherwise — to the Morpho Protocol. These MORPHO tokens are distributed according to three vesting schedules based on the time these Strategic Partners joined the Morpho ecosystem.

Cohort 1: 4.0% allocated over a 3 year vest, with a 6 month lockup from when the MORPHO token contract was deployed on 24 June 2022.

Cohort 2: 16.8% originally allocated over a 3 year vest, with a 6 month lockup from 24 June 2022. However, these strategic partners have agreed to relock to a 6 month linear vesting, following a 6 month lockup from the earliest of any future transferability date or 3 October 2024. This means 100% is vested by 3 October 2025 at the latest.

Cohort 3: 6.7% allocated over 2 year linear vest, following a 1 year lockup from the earliest of any future transferability date or 17 May 2025. This means 100% is vested by 17 May 2028 at the latest.

Founders

15.2% of MORPHO tokens have been allocated to Morpho’s founders. The tokens were originally allocated over 3 year vest, with a 1-year lockup from when the token was deployed on 24 June 2022. However, all co-founders have agreed to relock to additional 2 year linear vest, following a 1 year lockup from the earliest of any future transferability date or May 17th 2025. This means 100% is vested by 17 May 2028 at the latest.

Early Contributors

4.9% of MORPHO tokens have been allocated to early contributors, including Morpho Labs’ contributors, independent researchers, and advisors, in exchange for contributions to the Morpho Protocol. These tokens have been subject to either:

• A 3-year vesting schedule with a 6-month lockup, or
• A 4-year vesting schedule with a 4-month lockup.

Circulating Supply

The circulating supply on transferability date is expected to be approximately 11.2%.

The chart below shows how the circulating supply of MORPHO tokens might evolve over time:

Note: the evolution of the MORPHO circulating supply over time is subject to change as the Morpho DAO makes future decisions on use of reserves and rate of distributions.

Initial Non-Transferability Phase

While token-based governance allows anyone to own a share of the Morpho network, many token launches are very unfair because the launch date & price are often a centralized decision. Moreover, there is usually a large information asymmetry between the initial team/investors and the potential buyers.

The MORPHO token was launched as non-transferable to tackle those issues, allowing the DAO to turn on transferability anytime. This enabled the protocol to reach meaningful traction prior to a decentralized token launch process.

Under this vision, a good equilibrium for the control of a DAO is a clear distribution between:

1. Users: To own a share of the network and to provide a positive feedback loop on the product.
2. Contributors: To keep improving and building based on the user's feedback and on their technical vision.
3. Strategic Partners: To provide capital and guidance to fuel those contributions.

The current state of distributions in categories 2. and 3. are described above. As for 1., it is described in the Rewards section.

Morpho DAO Voted to Enable Token Transferability

Although initially deployed as a non-transferable token for the reasons mentioned above, the Morpho DAO voted to enable the transferability of the MORPHO token to advance Morpho’s mission to make financial infrastructure a public good. Since launching in June 2022, the DAO has progressively distributed ownership to the protocol’s users, strategic partners, risk curators, and other contributors aligned with Morpho's long-term vision. Now, by enabling token transferability, the Morpho DAO is opening ownership of the Morpho network to anyone.

As discussed in the community forum, this move is a key step toward realizing the protocol’s mission of transforming financial infrastructure into a public good. It will empower a broader range of participants to engage with and contribute to the Morpho ecosystem, bringing new perspectives and ensuring that DAO decisions reflect the interests of a more diverse community.

A Community-Driven Approach

The Morpho DAO took a unique approach with the MORPHO token, addressing common criticisms of token launches often controlled by a small group or centralized entity. By initially deploying MORPHO as a non-transferable token, the DAO allowed itself—not any centralized entity or individual—to decide when to enable transferability, ensuring a decentralized and community-driven process.

During the non-transferability phase, the DAO prioritized distributing ownership across three key pillars: users, contributors, and strategic partners:

• Users gained ownership in the network and helped shape its evolution,
• Contributors enhanced the technology, network, and accessibility based on user feedback,
• Strategic partners offered capital and guidance.

Now, with a robust ecosystem of contributors, tens of thousands of users, and a network poised to become a cornerstone of decentralized finance, the DAO agreed to take the next step: making the MORPHO token transferable to further its mission of transforming financial infrastructure into a public good.

Github Repositories

• Wrapped MORPHO Token
• Legacy MORPHO Token
• Semitransferable repository

FAQ

General Token Information

There is a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000 MORPHO.

The expected circulating supply on transferability date was approximately 11.2%.

Always refer to this section.

The original, now legacy, MORPHO token was deployed as an immutable contract and lacked functionality associated with onchain vote accounting. The Morpho DAO voted to create a contract to wrap the legacy tokens into wrapped MORPHO to enable onchain vote tracking functionality in MIP-75.

In addition to onchain vote tracking, using an upgradeable token makes it possible to conform to a crosschain interoperability standard in the future, minimizing friction for MORPHO holders who want to move their tokens between chains.

Although legacy MORPHO tokens can be freely converted to wrapped MORPHO 1:1 via the wrapper contract, there could be a risk that legacy tokens might be used mistakenly in external integrations, such as exchanges. To prevent this, only the wrapped MORPHO is transferable. Users can easily wrap their existing legacy MORPHO tokens on the Morpho App (see How to wrap here).

Transferability Event

With the vote finalized on Nov 6, 2024, the MORPHO token transferability was enabled on Thursday, 21th November 2024.

Now that transferability is enabled, existing holders of legacy MORPHO tokens on Ethereum can wrap their tokens on the Morpho App.

MORPHO on Base is already wrapped, so there are no additional steps.

Swapping

Contributors of Morpho do not decide which CEXs will list MORPHO. However, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Kraken, Bithumb, MEXC, Gate.io, Crypto.com, and Kucoin, have already listed the MORPHO token. More CEXs may choose to list MORPHO in the future.

Exchanges plan only to support wrapped MORPHO. Now that transferability is enabled, users are able to wrap existing legacy MORPHO tokens on the Morpho App.

Yes, the Morpho DAO has voted yes to Aera’s proposal on providing liquidity for MORPHO/ETH on Uniswap V3 on both Base and Ethereum. More details on this here.

Note that these pools are for wrapped MORPHO.

OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Kraken, Bithumb, MEXC, Gate.io, Crypto.com, and Kucoin have listed the wrapped MORPHO token. There may be more CEXs in the future.

MORPHO liquidity has also been provided to MORPHO/ETH Uniswap V3 pools on Base and Ethereum.

You will need to wrap legacy MORPHO tokens before swapping.

If you hold legacy MORPHO tokens, you’ll be able to wrap them using the Morpho App once transferability is enabled.

Rewards

Yes, MORPHO rewards will continue being distributed until the Morpho DAO votes to change it. Please note that future MORPHO tokens distributed on Ethereum and Base will be wrapped already.

Until transferability date, 21th November 2024, MORPHO rewards distributed on Ethereum have been the legacy token. Existing legacy token holders on Ethereum can wrap their tokens.

All MORPHO rewards on Base are already wrapped. There is no additional action required.

MORPHO token rewards on Base are claimable under the rewards tab of the Morpho App. All tokens claimed on Base are already wrapped.

The rate of the uniform reward rate model set by the Morpho DAO and will only change when the Morpho DAO agrees to change it via governance process.

Currently, every week. The objective is to reduce this duration as much as possible.

To ensure an easy and seamless migration from the Legacy MORPHO Token to the new MORPHO Token, a dedicated contract called Wrapper has been deployed.

The wrapper will allow a 1:1 conversion of the legacy token to the new MORPHO token. So all the holders of the legacy token will be able to migrate all their MORPHO token.

Note that all MORPHO on Base will already be wrapped and transferability. Once claimed there are no additional actions required.

How to wrap the Legacy MORPHO token

On the Morpho interface

If you hold Legacy MORPHO token, just go to app.morpho.org, connect your wallet holding the legacy tokens, and a banner will appear on top of the screen. This banner will allow you to migrate your Morpho Tokens. Click on the Wrap button at the top right of the Morpho interface.

Clicking on the Wrap button will trigger a modal, showing your Legacy MORPHO token balance and proposing you to wrap it.

Then click on the Wrap MORPHO button and it will trigger:

1. A transaction to approve the bundler to wrap the Legacy MORPHO tokens.
2. A transaction to wrap the Legacy MORPHO tokens into the wrapped MORPHO token.

At contract level

If you hold Legacy MORPHO tokens and want to migrate them onchain by yourself without going through the Morpho app, you can directly interact at contract level, using Etherscan for instance.

To do so, you will have to:

• Connect your wallet to Etherscan.

• Approve your Legacy MORPHO tokens to the wrapper. This can be done with the legacy token contract's approve function, (the arguments should be the wrapper contract’s address and your amount of legacy tokens). E.g: - Wrapper address: 0x9D03bb2092270648d7480049d0E58d2FcF0E5123 - 1000000000000000000 for 1 Legacy MORPHO Token (18 decimals)

• Migrate your tokens on the wrapper by calling the wrapper contract’s depositFor function (the arguments should be your address, or another address if you want another recipient for the migrated tokens, and your amount of legacy tokens).

Feel free to join Morpho Discord if you need support.