According to Fortune, crypto infrastructure startup LI.FI has raised $29 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital and CoinFund, bringing its total capital to about $52 million. The announcement was made on Thursday, though CEO Philipp Zentner did not disclose the company’s valuation. LI.FI provides a tool for businesses to compare exchange rates and bridging fees across different blockchains, aiming to find the most efficient transaction path. The company claims it is already profitable, generates revenue via transaction fees, and currently handles a massive $8 billion in monthly transaction volume as of October—a figure that’s seven times higher than its volume a year ago. It has over 100 employees and more than 800 partners, including major names like Robinhood, Binance, and Kraken.
The Google Flights Pitch
Zentner’s analogy of being a combination of Google Flights and Google Maps is actually pretty clever. It immediately frames a complex, technical crypto problem as a simple search and routing issue that any business user can grasp. Instead of you manually checking ten different bridges and DEXs, their protocol does it via a single API. Spencer Applebaum from Multicoin nailed the core value prop: as crypto features get baked into mainstream fintech apps, those companies don’t want to become blockchain routing experts. They just want a button that works. LI.FI sells them that button, handling the messy execution behind the scenes. And with $8 billion in monthly volume, it’s clear there’s a real, paying demand for this abstraction layer. The expansion plans into perpetual futures and lending markets show they want to be the one-stop shop for all cross-chain *actions*, not just simple swaps.
But Bridges Are Still Scary
Here’s the thing, though. No matter how slick the front-end comparison tool is, it’s still routing transactions through bridges. And if there’s one area in crypto that has been an absolute disaster zone, it’s cross-chain bridges. We’re talking about billions of dollars evaporated in hacks—Ronin, Wormhole, Nomad, the list is long and painful. LI.FI can find you the cheapest or fastest route, but can it guarantee the *safest* one? That’s a much harder question. Their service presumably aggregates across many bridges, which diversifies risk, but also means they’re inherently tied to the security of the weakest link in their integrated portfolio. The company’s success is fundamentally coupled with the broader industry solving bridge security, which, frankly, is still very much a work in progress. It’s a bit like building a fantastic travel booking site for airlines that have a worrying track record of mid-air incidents.
Profitable In Crypto Winter?
The claim of profitability is a huge signal in the current environment. Raising $29M is one thing, but not *needing* to because you’re already in the black? That’s rare air for a crypto infrastructure play right now. It suggests their transaction-fee model is scaling effectively with volume. But it also makes you wonder: what’s the $29M for, exactly? Zentner says hiring and expansion into new domains. That’s the classic “land grab” move—using a war chest to build features and capture market share before competitors can catch up. The risk is over-expansion. Jumping from cross-chain swaps into prediction markets and perpetual futures is a big leap in product complexity. Can they maintain their reliability and security while becoming a financial Swiss Army knife? That’s the execution challenge now.
The B2B Crypto Play
This whole story is a textbook example of the maturing “B2B” or “picks and shovels” trend in crypto. The wild, consumer-facing speculative wave has receded. Now, the money and focus are shifting to the tools that businesses need to *use* blockchain technology practically. LI.FI isn’t selling to degens; it’s selling to Robinhood and Kraken. That’s a more stable, enterprise-sales driven model. The bet from Multicoin and CoinFund is that cross-chain activity isn’t a fad—it’s a permanent, growing state of affairs in a multi-blockchain world. If that’s true, then being the routing layer becomes incredibly valuable. But it’s a big “if.” The long-term dream is a seamless, interconnected “financial internet” of chains. The current reality is still a patchwork of islands with occasionally rickety, dangerous boats ferrying value between them. LI.FI is trying to build the best ferry schedule and booking system in that world. Whether the boats themselves stop sinking is out of their hands.
