LI.FI Intents Just Went Live: The Coordination Layer Cross-Chain Finance Was Missing

From aggregation to marketplace

Philipp Zentner said LI.FI bought a company called Catalyst a little over a year ago, a step he described as shifting the company "from pure aggregation to having an open marketplace." LI.FI Intents is the result of that shift. It follows LI.FI Composer, launched in February 2026 for multi-step, multi-chain DeFi orchestration.

He says the system was built abstract and modular from the start, and that its intent design can use resource locks, ERC 7683 or other escrow mechanisms. He also claims LI.FI is the only provider offering swap, bridge, swap and deposit into a vault within one transaction.

The Stripe comparison

Philipp Zentner compared the moment to Stripe fifteen years ago, when there were around 200 payment gateways that Stripe aggregated behind a simple API, and to Twilio in communications. For real-world asset issuers, he said, LI.FI acts as "your distribution pipe." The protocol is integrated by wallets and exchanges including Robinhood, Binance, Kraken, MetaMask, Phantom, Ledger, Hyperliquid, Circle and Alipay.

Consolidation and distribution

Philipp Zentner argues there is no perfect DEX aggregator because every design choice has trade-offs. He said at least five DEX aggregators have reached out wanting to be acquired or to shut down, and that the same is happening in bridging and lending. In his view, "B to C and crypto is not very loyal," so distribution decides who survives.

He also pointed to vertical integration by Phantom and MetaMask, which he said is fine for larger players but bad for smaller ones too dependent on a single integration. Acquisitions make sense, he said, when they let LI.FI use its distribution and save time to market.