Merkl
Merkl provides onchain distribution infrastructure enabling stablecoin issuers, fintechs, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to distribute yield, dividends, and rewards across 60+ blockchain networks using Merkle-proof claims and reward forwarders.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded-
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Merkl does
Merkl is onchain distribution infrastructure developed by Angle Labs, Inc. (a Delaware corporation headquartered in Paris, France) that enables stablecoin issuers, fintechs, exchanges, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to distribute yield, dividends, and rewards across more than 60 blockchain networks. The platform is built on a Merkle-tree-based distribution engine that supports CREATE2 and CREATE3 deterministic smart contract deployment, and includes a proprietary reward-forwarder mechanism that traces beneficial ownership through any depth of nested smart contracts, reaching users whether they hold assets in wallets, lending markets, vaults, or staking contracts. Merkl supports variable, fixed, capped, and target APR distribution models, with granular eligibility criteria including OFAC checks, blacklist filtering, minimum balance requirements, holding duration, and World ID human verification.
The product surface consists of four integrated components: Merkl Studio (self-serve campaign creation at studio.merkl.xyz), Merkl App (consumer-facing reward discovery and claiming at app.merkl.xyz with 200,000+ monthly active users), the Merkl API (for embedding yield, claim experiences, and live distribution data into partner products), and Merkl Pay (private token transfers across 64+ chains). Merkl's go-to-market combines product-led growth through these self-serve interfaces with enterprise sales for stablecoin issuers (PayPal, Circle, Coinbase, SG-Forge), exchanges (Kraken), and blockchain foundations requiring bespoke distribution logic.
Merkl monetizes via a transaction-fee model: a 3% maintenance fee on standard distribution campaigns, a 0.5% fee on airdrop campaigns, and bespoke subscription pricing for long-term institutional partnerships. To date, the platform has distributed over $1.6 billion for 250+ companies including Aave, Morpho, Optimism, Uniswap, Sky, Ethena, ZKsync, Trust Wallet, and World Chain. The company is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and operates with 11-50 employees, with co-founder Pablo Veyrat leading alongside other founders.
Merkl firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Merkl
- Legal name
- Angle Labs, Inc.
- Website
- https://merkl.xyz
- Company type
- Private
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Merkl provides onchain distribution infrastructure enabling stablecoin issuers, fintechs, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to distribute yield, dividends, and rewards across 60+ blockchain networks using Merkle-proof claims and reward forwarders.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Merkl industry classification
Industry- Product category
- DeFi Distribution Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Stablecoins & On-Chain Money (fiat-backed, crypto-backed, algorithmic; issuance/redemption) (FSAPAEAB)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Smart Contract Frameworks & SDKs (developer kits, templates, standards) (FSAPABAB), Compliance, Risk & RegTech for Tokenized Assets (KYC/AML, sanctions, travel rule, reporting) (FSAPAIAH), Regulatory Reporting, Tax & Audit Trails (reconciliation, provenance) (FSAPAJAI)
Keywords
Where Merkl is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Markets served
Merkl business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Standard Distribution Fees: Merkl charges a 3% maintenance fee on standard distribution campaigns. This fee is applied to the total distribution amount and covers the platform's ongoing operational costs, distribution engine usage, and support services.
- Airdrop Distribution Fees: Reduced 0.5% fee for airdrop campaigns. The fee is added on top of the total airdropped amount, ensuring recipients receive the full intended distribution. For custom programs or long-term partnerships, tailored pricing is offered.
- Custom Program Pricing: For custom programs with complex distribution logic, multi-chain requirements, or long-term institutional partnerships, Merkl offers tailored pricing arrangements outside the standard fee schedule.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Standard distribution campaigns with 3% maintenance fee |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Airdrop campaigns with reduced 0.5% fee |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Custom enterprise programs with bespoke pricing |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Merkl product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Merkl is onchain distribution infrastructure used by stablecoin issuers, fintechs, exchanges, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to send yield, dividends, and rewards to their users across 60+ EVM-compatible blockchain networks. The platform handles complex eligibility criteria, traces beneficial ownership through nested smart contracts, and supports variable/fixed/capped/target APR models with non-custodial asset control.
Product overview
Merkl is a unified onchain distribution infrastructure platform consisting of multiple integrated products: the core Merkl engine for distributing yield, dividends, and rewards across 60+ chains; Merkl Studio for campaign creation and management; the Merkl App for end-users to track and claim rewards; and Merkl Pay for private token transfers. Together these products enable stablecoin issuers, fintechs, exchanges, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to automate incentive distribution, reach 4M+ unique wallets, and manage campaigns for stablecoin yield, Earn products, tokenized assets, private payments, liquidity provisioning, and airdrops.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Merkl Pay: Private token transfer service allowing users to send any token confidentially with sender identity hidden from blockchain records.
- Merkl Studio
- Merkl App
Products and services
- Merkl Distribution Engine
Quantifiable outcome
- $1.6B+ distributed for 250+ companies across 60+ chains
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use Merkl
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Merkl technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Merkl partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Edel FinancecoreEdel Finance integrates Merkl for liquidity distribution on its Edel Markets perpetual futures exchange built on Canton blockchain for tokenized equities and commodities. Merkl infrastructure supports the exchange's reward distribution to institutional participants.
- OpenCoverflagshipDeveloped Covered Vaults—the first vault-native risk transfer primitive for DeFi—in a 9-month collaboration with Nexus Mutual, Morpho, Kiln, Symbiotic, and Base. Merkl enables reward distribution mechanics for the coverage system providing up to $50M capacity per vault.
- Jumper ExchangecorePartnered with Jumper as the multi-chain bridge for Optimism Superfest liquidity event. Jumper managed cross-chain fund transfers while Merkl handled incentive distribution tracking across OP Mainnet, Base, Mode, and Fraxtal chains. Resulted in $100M+ TVL increase.
- World ChainflagshipMerkl enabled the first onchain rewards logic for humans verified with World ID on World Chain. Custom campaigns reward only Orb-verified humans depositing into Morpho, filtering out bots. Over 100,000 verified humans engaged with $5M in rewards distributed.
- EtherlinkflagshipEtherlink (Layer 2 powered by Tezos Smart Rollups) partnered with Merkl to power Apple Farm incentive program distributing up to $3M in XTZ rewards. Merkl designed the Apple Farm app, manages point distribution, and handles the full reward claiming process.
- BOB (Build On Bitcoin)flagshipBOB partnered with Merkl to manage BOB RISE liquidity program distributing 750,000 OP tokens for Bitcoin DeFi activities. Merkl built and hosts the BOB RISE app, calculates and distributes rewards across participating protocols (Oku, Gamma, Euler, Veda).
- ZKsyncflagshipSelected as primary partner to manage $60M in ZK token distribution across 15 protocols over 9 months for ZKsync Ignite. Merkl designed and developed the Ignite app, calculates rewards, and oversees day-to-day operations for the liquidity program.
- PuffercoreMerkl manages Puffer Points calculation and distribution across staking, lending, and liquidity provision activities on Pendle, Zircuit, Karak, CyberConnect, Morpho, ZeroLend, Balancer, Curve, Uniswap, and GammaSwap. Includes smart contract development for point vesting.
- Nexus MutualcoreCo-development partner in Covered Vaults vault-native risk transfer primitive. Nexus Mutual provides onchain insurance coverage capabilities integrated with Merkl's distribution mechanics.
- MorphocoreLong-standing integration partner where Merkl distributes rewards across Morpho lending markets and vault ecosystems. Morpho is referenced as both a customer (Morpho reward system case study) and co-development partner in Covered Vaults.
- BasecoreBase blockchain is a co-development partner in Covered Vaults and a key chain in Merkl's multi-chain distribution network. Base is one of the 66+ chains supported for Merkl campaigns.
Scale indicators21 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Merkl competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Pendle Finance: Yield tokenization and distribution protocol that splits yield-bearing assets into PT/YT tokens and routes yield to holders. Operates in the same 'programmable onchain yield' category as Merkl's Sky SSR and Morpho vault use cases.
- Incentra: DeFi incentive optimization platform that helps protocols design and run liquidity-mining programs across chains. Directly competes with Merkl Studio for protocol-side incentive design and analytics workloads.
- Layer3: Onchain quests and rewards platform that distributes incentives to users for completing tasks across protocols. Overlaps with Merkl Studio/Merkl App in campaign creation, eligibility filtering, and reward claiming mechanics.
- Convex Finance: Liquidity-incentive layer for Curve that distributes boosted CRV rewards to vlCVX holders. Closest functional analog to Merkl for a single-protocol incentive distribution stack, though narrower in scope (Curve-only).
- Galxe: Web3 campaign and quest distribution platform that rewards users for onchain activity. Closely comparable to Merkl's campaign-creation and reward-claiming workflow, though Galxe is more oriented to quests and credentialing rather than DeFi incentive distribution.
- QuestN: Web3 quest and incentive distribution platform used by protocols to run airdrops and engagement campaigns. Comparable to Merkl's airdrop distribution product and self-serve campaign tooling.
Broad incumbents
- Beefy Finance: Multi-chain yield optimizer that auto-compounds and distributes rewards across many vaults. Comparable distribution mechanics for yield-bearing positions and similar multi-chain footprint to Merkl's 60+ chain support.
- Yearn Finance: Established DeFi yield aggregator with vaults that route deposits into lending markets and distribute yield. Comparable in user outcome (automated yield distribution) and underlying vault mechanics that Merkl rewards.
Emerging players
- EigenLayer: Restaking protocol that distributes ETH and restaked-asset rewards to operators and AVSs. Comparable reward-distribution challenge (multi-asset, multi-recipient, nested allocations) that Merkl's forwarder technology could plausibly serve.
Others
- Morpho: Lending protocol and Merkl integration partner whose vaults underpin Merkl-distributed reward campaigns for Sky, Aave Chan Initiative, and others. Adjacent infrastructure rather than direct competition — Merkl runs the distribution layer on top of Morpho's markets.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Merkl social profiles
Digital presenceMerkl financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Merkl leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Merkl funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Merkl M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Merkl
What does Merkl do?
Merkl is onchain distribution infrastructure used by stablecoin issuers, fintechs, exchanges, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols to send yield, dividends, and rewards to their users across 60+ EVM-compatible blockchain networks. The platform handles complex eligibility criteria, traces beneficial ownership through nested smart contracts, and supports variable/fixed/capped/target APR models with non-custodial asset control.
Is Merkl a public or private company?
Merkl is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Merkl founded?
Merkl was founded in -1. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Merkl based?
Merkl is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does Merkl make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Standard Distribution Fees are the primary driver. The others are airdrop Distribution Fees and custom Program Pricing.
Who are Merkl's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Pendle Finance, Incentra, Layer3, Convex Finance, Galxe and QuestN. Broad incumbents are Beefy Finance and Yearn Finance. EigenLayer is listed as an emerging player. Morpho is listed as an others.
Does Merkl have an API?
Yes. Power a native experience with the Merkl API. Show Merkl yield in your dashboard. Embed the claim experience in your app. Pull live distribution data into your interface. The Merkl API exposes the full stack so your users see everything natively, never leaving your product. Developer documentation is at developers.merkl.xyz.
What industry is Merkl in?
Merkl's product category is DeFi Distribution Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAPAEAB, Stablecoins & On-Chain Money (fiat-backed, crypto-backed, algorithmic; issuance/redemption), with a secondary code of FSAPABAB, Smart Contract Frameworks & SDKs (developer kits, templates, standards). Its NAICS code is 522320 and its SIC code is 6200.