In the crypto industry, many people see CeFi and DeFi as opposites, thinking it must be either centralized or decentralized. However, I find it more interesting that some projects try to merge the advantages of both sides—this is the CeDeFi path that BounceBit is pursuing.

Today we discuss how it combines the trust mechanism of custody + on-chain composability to form a competitive infrastructure.

1. Why merge CeDeFi?

DeFi is good, but many users/institutions are still afraid of on-chain security, private key risks, and asset custody issues; CeFi has trust and convenience, but lacks transparency and on-chain composability. BounceBit attempts to build a bridge: allowing BTC to enter the on-chain world under custodial protection while also being freely composable on-chain.

This integration can lower the entry barrier for ordinary users and provide institutions with a more trustworthy access channel.

2. Custody Cooperation / Trust Structure

BounceBit's documentation mentions that it collaborates with institutions like Mainnet Digital, Ceffu, etc., to provide custody services. By using these regulated/compliant institutions for asset protection, it ensures that users' BTC have security guarantees before entering the chain. DIA+1

In this way, ideally, users can 'entrust BTC to a trusted institution' and then use it as native assets on-chain. This design of trust + on-chain rights binding is the core of CeDeFi integration.

3. Modular Infrastructure: Protocol Stack + Application Layer

BounceBit not only has staking/re-staking, but also plans to provide modular infrastructure for ecosystem developers:

  • Bridge / Cross-Chain Layer: Bridging BTC from external chains/another chain.

  • Liquid Staking Layer / LST: Tokenizing rights after staking.

  • DeFi Application Layer: Lending, Market Making, Composable Strategies, RWA Access, etc.

  • Governance / Security Mechanism Layer: On-chain voting, punishment mechanisms, upgrade mechanisms, etc.

Developers can build dApps/strategies on this architecture without everyone having to invent staking + custody + composable logic.

4. Trust / Trustless Boundary Division

In the CeDeFi architecture, a challenge is 'which parts to trust and which parts to trustless'. BounceBit has made the following boundary design:

  • Custody link trust institutions (Mainnet, Ceffu, etc.)

  • Once assets are in custody, wrapped/introduced on-chain, on-chain operations follow smart contract logic.

  • Contract Layer, Governance Layer, Verification Layer are all trustless/open source/auditable

  • Reward/Punishment mechanisms are also executed on-chain, reducing centralized intervention.

This trust boundary division is the basis for whether the CeDeFi architecture can operate safely and efficiently.