Three major DeFi tokens, Morpho (MORPHO), Uniswap (UNI), and Jupiter (JUP), have soared over the past week after Wall Street firms Apollo Global Management, BlackRock, and Parafi Capital inked a landmark deal to acquire direct stakes in on-chain financial infrastructure.
This move signals a structural shift as traditional asset managers move beyond crypto exposure and begin to take governance and economic ownership in decentralized trading and lending rails.
Morpho soars after Apollo agrees to acquire 90 million tokens
Morpho recorded the strongest rally after Apollo Global Management announced a cooperation agreement to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over four years. The purchase amount corresponds to approximately 9% of the total supply.
The deal provides clarity on Apollo’s governance and positions the company to support lending markets built on Morpho’s infrastructure.
Morpho currently has approximately $5.8 billion in total locked up, making it one of the largest on-chain lending platforms.
Investors reacted quickly. Morpho has risen nearly 30% in one week.
Uniswap soars as BlackRock acquires UNI and integrates tokenization funds
Uniswap rallied after BlackRock confirmed that it had purchased UNI tokens at the same time it integrated its $2 billion tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL into Uniswap’s institutional trading infrastructure.
This integration will enable institutional investors to trade tokenized government bond exposure using Uniswap’s decentralized exchange rails.
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s acquisition of UNI will give asset managers governance influence over the protocols that currently host their funds.
UNI soared late in the week, rising nearly 20%.
ParaFi invests $35 million directly in JUP
Jupiter also rose after ParaFi Capital invested $35 million directly into the protocol’s JUP token.
Unlike typical venture deals, ParaFi purchased tokens at market price with lockups and guarantees for future purchases.
The deal marks Jupiter’s first institutional investment and aligns ParaFi with the platform’s expansion into lending, stablecoins, and institutional trading infrastructure.
JUP rose from about $0.144 to $0.163 in a week.
Taken together, these transactions highlight broader trends. Rather than simply buying crypto assets, Wall Street firms are acquiring governance interests in core DeFi protocols.
This transition signals increased institutional trust in on-chain financial rails and helps explain the strong price reaction across lending and trading infrastructure tokens.
