Centrifuge

About Centrifuge (CFG)

What Is Centrifuge (CFG)?

Centrifuge is an open protocol for tokenizing and operating financial products onchain, built for asset managers and fintechs that want compliant tokenized funds without building their own infrastructure. It handles issuance, net asset value accounting, investor permissions and multi-chain distribution through an immutable core plus modular extensions. CFG is the ecosystem token, now an ERC-20 on Ethereum after the protocol migrated off the original Centrifuge Chain. Documentation reports over $2 billion in real-world assets tokenized to date.

Official resources:

• https://centrifuge.io/
• https://docs.centrifuge.io/
• https://gov.centrifuge.io/
• https://github.com/centrifuge/

Who Founded Centrifuge? (History)

Centrifuge was founded in 2017 by Lucas Vogelsang, Martin Quensel, Maex Ament and Philip Stehlik, whose earlier work included Taulia, the supply chain finance company later acquired by SAP. Its first product was Tinlake, where originators pooled tokenized assets into junior and senior tranches. Proposal CP141 later moved the protocol to a native EVM environment, and CP149 consolidated legacy CFG and Wrapped CFG into one Ethereum ERC-20 at 1:1. That migration is now closed.

How Centrifuge Works

The protocol uses a hub-and-spoke architecture. Each pool picks one hub chain as its control and accounting layer, processing investment requests, running pricing and NAV, and keeping a double-entry ledger of holdings. Spoke chains are the distribution layer where share tokens are issued and redeemed, with cross-chain movement handled by burn-and-mint. Vaults follow standards: ERC-4626, ERC-7540 for the asynchronous flows regulated funds need, and ERC-7575 for multi-asset vaults.

Key Ecosystem Components

• Centrifuge Hub, the per-pool control chain for accounting, pricing, orders and NAV.
• Centrifuge Spoke deployments, per-chain balance sheets for issuance and redemption.
• Transfer hooks encoding compliance, so a pool can be permissioned or tradable.
• The Management app, SDK and API for operating a product without writing contracts.

CFG Token Utility

CFG carries governance and value-accrual rights over the protocol. Under proposal CP171, approved in November 2025, active DAO governance was paused and execution moved to the Centrifuge Network Foundation, with the documented position that the DAO can reassume it later. CFG has a documented 3% annual inflation rate accruing to the treasury rather than to stakers, and no supply cap. The staking and fee roles it played on the deprecated Centrifuge Chain do not carry over.

What Makes Centrifuge Unique?

Centrifuge built the accounting layer, not just the token wrapper. Most platforms mint a share token and keep the books offchain; Centrifuge keeps double-entry bookkeeping and a holdings ledger in contracts on the hub chain and syncs that state across chains. Documentation also names Apollo, Janus Henderson and S&P Dow Jones Indices among institutions using it.

How Centrifuge Differs from Similar Projects

Compared with private credit protocols such as Maple, Goldfinch and Clearpool, Centrifuge is neutral infrastructure rather than a lender: it does not originate loans or set credit terms, managers do, and Centrifuge supplies rails, vault standards and accounting. Compared with Ondo, which issues its own branded funds, it is closer to a white-label platform. Compared with an RWA chain such as Plume, it deploys across existing EVM networks.

Use Cases of Centrifuge

• Asset managers launching a tokenized fund with prebuilt onboarding, NAV and reporting.
• Fintechs distributing a yield-bearing product across chains from one control point.
• DeFi protocols using tokenized fund shares as collateral through standard vaults.
• Curators running onchain allocation strategies inside pre-approved workflows.

How Centrifuge Is Secured

The design separates an immutable core from modular extensions, so the parts holding value change rarely while customization happens at the edges. Documentation reports 24 security reviews to date. Cross-chain messaging uses per-pool adapters rather than one hardcoded bridge, letting an issuer pick a suitable security model.

Risks and Considerations

Real-world asset protocols carry credit and legal risk absent from onchain-only lending: if a borrower or fund performs poorly, recovery depends on offchain legal process, and NAV is only as good as the pricing inputs a manager supplies. CP171 concentrates execution in a foundation board, reducing the direct onchain control CFG holders previously had, and cross-chain deployments add messaging risk.

Why Centrifuge Matters

Tokenized funds are only useful when they can be issued, priced, distributed and redeemed as reliably as their offchain equivalents. Centrifuge is one of the longest-running attempts to build that whole stack rather than a single product.

Where Can You Buy Centrifuge (CFG)?

CFG trades on a range of centralized exchanges and, as an ERC-20, on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. Because the migration is closed and legacy CFG and WCFG can no longer be exchanged, buy only the current Ethereum-native contract, verified against the documentation.

Storage Options After Purchase

CFG is a standard ERC-20, so any Ethereum-compatible wallet will hold it, including hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor, the sensible default for long-held positions. Investing in Centrifuge pools is a separate action, done through the app at app.centrifuge.io.

Related Coins

• Ondo (ONDO)
• Maple Finance (SYRUP)
• Goldfinch (GFI)
• Plume (PLUME)
• Clearpool (CPOOL)