By Jeroen Offerijns, CTO @ Centrifuge

Centrifuge was started with a simple, yet challenging, idea — bringing real-world assets onchain — and turned into a functioning, scalable protocol. We minted the first RWA with MakerDAO, built the first RWA market with Aave, and launched the first onchain fund with BlockTower. Each step has been a learning process, refining our approach and strengthening the protocol. Now, with Centrifuge V3, we're pushing forward again.

How Centrifuge has evolved

• V1: Security First. The first iteration launched in 2020, on Ethereum Mainnet. It focused on private credit assets, and using these in DeFi, notably as collateral for the MakerDAO protocol. This showed the potential of tokenizing RWAs onchain, but was limited in what kind of assets could be supported, and focused only on 1 chain.

• V2: Multi-Chain Expansion. In 2023, V2 was launched, combining a much more comprehensive fund management product, with first-of-its-kind multi-chain capabilities for investor management.

• V3: Interoperability and Scalability. Bringing together security, fund management, and multi-chain capabilities, in V3 we are taking everything to the next level. The protocol has now turned into a chain abstraction protocol for fund managers and tokenized assets investors alike. It also brings synchronous asset composability, for the next wave of assets that are natively tokenized onchain.

Why move to an EVM-based infrastructure?

With Centrifuge V3, we’re aligning with where the market already is. Over 95% of Centrifuge Liquidity Pools’ TVL comes from EVM chains, and most investors hold their pool tokens there. EVM chains provide deep onchain liquidity and strong native stablecoin support, making them the logical foundation for the next stage of institutional adoption.

Banks, asset managers, and funds are already prioritizing EVM infrastructure. By making this shift, Centrifuge V3 will provide institutions with a system that is flexible, efficient, and fully integrated with the ecosystems where capital is flowing.

What to expect from V3

Multi-chain experience with chain abstraction

Centrifuge has been multi-chain for years, but V3 takes it to the next level. Managing investors across multiple chains should be seamless, not a logistical challenge. Asset managers on Centrifuge interact with a single chain while reaching investors across many. The complexity of cross-chain transactions is abstracted away, making interoperability feel native.

• Any asset manager on Centrifuge will be able to reach any investor on any chain, in any token.

• Funds will be launched and managed from any EVM chain.

• Chain abstraction will make multi-chain management frictionless.

This isn’t just about adding more chains, it’s about making multi-chain interactions as simple as single-chain ones, giving institutions the efficiency and flexibility they need.

It brings together our learnings from the last few years of building a multi-chain protocol. It not only removes some of the pain-points that still exist in V2, but it also sets us up for significant growth across the entire DeFi market.

Modular fund infrastructure

Managing funds onchain means keeping pace with how the market evolves. Centrifuge started with private credit, then expanded to treasury bills as institutional demand shifted. Now, we’re seeing interest in broader asset classes — credit, tokenized equity, and even fully native onchain assets.

The next wave of RWAs won’t fit a rigid framework, which is why Centrifuge V3 introduces a modular fund infrastructure. Asset managers will have the flexibility to structure pools based on a range of asset types, with built-in mechanisms to support valuation, risk segmentation, and liquidity management. Onchain finance is not static, and neither is the infrastructure needed to support it.

Here is what to expect:

• Plug-and-play architecture. Fund managers will be able to build and configure funds with diverse tokenized assets, from T-bills and fixed-income securities to private credit and onchain-native assets.

• Valuation flexibility. Support for multiple pricing methodologies, including pools with oracle-driven valuation models, ensuring accurate asset assessment.

• Interoperability. Designed for integration with both traditional and DeFi ecosystems, enabling seamless transitions between different investment strategies.

With V3, Centrifuge makes fund structuring dynamic and adaptable, empowering asset managers to bring their full fund operations onchain, removing the inefficiencies that exist in current systems, and creating increased transparency for investors.

More broadly, it enables asset managers to customize the protocol to their needs. The starting point is using the existing building blocks, but as the usage and needs grow, the open protocol can be adapted and built upon to enable any use case.

Composability for onchain assets

Managing assets onchain isn’t just about tokenization — it’s about how those assets interact with the broader financial ecosystem. Centrifuge V3 is designed to support both synchronous and asynchronous composability, ensuring that transactions, accounting, and investments happen with the right level of efficiency and flexibility.

• Settlement side: Synchronous composability ensures that transactions happen instantly and seamlessly, providing the predictability required for real-world financial operations.

• Accounting side: Asynchronous composability enables efficient processing and reconciliation, ensuring back-office operations don’t interfere with liquidity and settlement speed.

• Investment side: A hybrid model — primarily asynchronous for efficient capital deployment, but with optional synchronous features when instant execution is required.

• Synchronous asset composability: The new protocol allows seamless integration of tokenized assets across any EVM-compatible chain, giving fund managers full control over how they tap into RWA and onchain yields.

Centrifuge V3 ensures that fund managers don’t just bring RWAs onchain but can also manage, move, and integrate them in a way that makes sense for institutional finance.

Building the future of institutional RWA adoption

Centrifuge V3 is more than an upgrade — it’s a purpose-built evolution designed to meet the needs of institutional asset managers. With a multi-chain, modular, and highly composable infrastructure, V3 gives fund managers the ability to launch and manage tokenized funds with security, efficiency, and flexibility.

Institutions require more than just access to tokenized assets — they need reliability, deep liquidity, and seamless integration with existing financial systems. V3 streamlines fund management, enhances liquidity aggregation and ensures full interoperability with both traditional finance and DeFi ecosystems.

More to come as we roll out Centrifuge V3 — stay tuned.