I just noticed an interesting move from traditional asset managers. Apollo Global Management, the giant managing $938 billion in assets, has just signed an agreement to purchase up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over the next four years. This amount accounts for 9% of the total governance token supply of the Morpho protocol.

What makes this noteworthy? Apollo Global Management is not only buying tokens but also collaborating to build lending markets on the Morpho protocol. Morpho provides infrastructure for on-chain lending markets, and with this investment, Apollo will have a say in the platform's development.

Gia Lạc Digital UK is serving as the exclusive financial advisor for this deal. Purchases can be made through market buys, over-the-counter trades, or other methods, but will be subject to ownership limits and transfer restrictions.

This is essentially the next step in Apollo Global Management’s broader blockchain strategy. Last year, they invested millions of dollars into PLUME, a project focused on bringing traditional financial products onto the blockchain. Additionally, Apollo is tokenizing its credit strategies through third parties—Securitize issues ACRED, and Anemoy provides ACRDX, both tracking private and global public credit strategies.

It’s clear that Apollo Global Management is not the only asset management firm stepping into DeFi. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has also recently enabled trading of tokenized US Treasury fund shares (BUIDL) on Uniswap and purchased some UNI tokens of this protocol.

The current prices are $1.86 for MORPHO, $0.01 for PLUME, and $3.26 for UNI. This trend indicates that giant asset management companies are gradually experimenting with decentralized financial platforms, which could open new opportunities in the DeFi space.