Key Highlights
- Modular by Design: LI.FI’s architecture uses EIP-2535 to separate logic across composable facets for security, scalability, and upgradeability
- Unified Liquidity Access: A single integration gives developers access to 30+ chains, 13 bridges, 35+ DEXs, and solver networks
- Proactive Security Model: Validated through expert reviews, open competitions, and a $1M live bug bounty
- Real-World Proven: Adopted by MetaMask, Hyperliquid, Alchemix, and others to power cross-chain functionality in production
Solving Fragmentation at Scale
DeFi’s fragmentation created operational risk as much as complexity. Each ecosystem came with its own bridges, liquidity venues, and constraints, and every integration decision multiplied dependencies. LI.FI addresses this by standardizing access to cross-chain liquidity while letting integrators control which dependencies they trust. Through the SDK, API, and widget, partners can explicitly allow or deny specific bridges, exchanges, chains, and tokens, so quotes and routes are constructed only from the venues they approve. Rather than altering the security of any single bridge, LI.FI gives integrators the ability to define and enforce their own routing policies, ensuring that only approved liquidity venues are used and that unwanted paths are excluded from execution.
The result is a modular aggregation system that unifies disparate liquidity sources and routing mechanisms behind one interface, yet preserves local control. Developers query a single backend for pricing and execution while applying venue allow-lists, deny-lists, and other guardrails to reflect their compliance posture and risk appetite. This combination of abstraction and policy control makes cross-chain interactions feel seamless to users and auditable to integrators.
Composable Infrastructure: LI.FI’s System Design
LI.FI’s architecture is built for scale, it is designed to abstract away the complexity of DeFi infrastructure by connecting dApps to a unified backend that aggregates pricing and execution across bridges, DEXs, and solvers.
Key Components
1. dApp Interface
The integration layer developers interact with. dApps submit route requests and receive transaction instructions from LI.FI’s backend.
2. Backend Aggregation & Routing Layer
The off-chain engine that performs pricing analysis and selects optimal routes across multiple liquidity sources. It interfaces with bridges, DEX aggregators, and solvers to return actionable quotes.
3. LI.FI Diamond Contract
The main on-chain execution point. Based on the selected route, it delegates to specialized facet contracts, each optimized for a particular class of liquidity source.
4. Facet Contracts
Custom bridge, DEX, and solver handlers. These contracts manage protocol-specific execution logic and ensure smooth interaction with external contracts.
5. Liquidity Provider Contracts
Final execution layer. These are external bridge, DEX, or solver smart contracts where trades are ultimately settled.
Order Lifecycle
- A user initiates a swap or bridge request through a dApp
- The backend aggregates quotes and routes
- The dApp submits a transaction to the LI.FI Diamond contract
- The Diamond routes it to the appropriate facet
- The facet executes the trade with the underlying protocol
- Funds are returned to the user
This system ensures modularity, extensibility, and performance across chains.
Real-World Use Cases: Powering the Ecosystem
Such a robust and flexible system is already powering a growing ecosystem of dApps and platforms. Below are some concrete examples where LI.FI’s technology drives real value.
Hyperliquid: A decentralized perpetual exchange built on its own L1 integrates LI.FI to let users swap any asset on Arbitrum directly into USDC.e, the platform’s supported collateral. As of last week, intent-based fulfilment via Relay and Gasdotzip is live for HyperCore, enabling users to move from USDC to USDC (Perps) in a single click. LI.FI’s aggregation stack ensures optimal price execution across 35+ DEXs.
MetaMask Bridges: LI.FI powers MetaMask’s bridge interface using its API, abstracting complexity and providing users with seamless, best-rate bridging options.
Superfluid: Integrates LI.FI’s widget to enable real-time token streaming across chains. Developers can plug in cross-chain functionality within minutes.
Alchemix: Utilizes LI.FI’s SDK for advanced smart contract-based interactions that enable cross-chain asset management and composable DeFi logic.
OpenLiq Finance: Enhances its product with cross-chain swap capabilities through LI.FI, creating a unified user experience without switching networks manually.
Teahouse: Implements the LI.FI widget to give users access to multi-chain liquidity with simplified frontend integration.
LI.FI’s modularity allows any dApp to incorporate secure and optimized cross-chain functionality in minutes.
The architectural foundation of LI.FI is grounded in the diamond pattern (EIP-2535), a design that offers modularity and scalability while introducing significant on-chain routing complexity. LI.FI manages this surface with precision, exposing a highly programmable, multi-faceted system that is simultaneously accessible to integrators and fortified against threats.
Security Leadership in Practice
LI.FI’s architecture necessitates a sophisticated security strategy. Beyond traditional reviews cycles and by collaborating with Cantina, the organization has established a proactive security approach that embeds verification and public scrutiny & accountability into its development timeline.
Cantina is working with LI.FI to implement an ongoing security model that exemplifies how organizations should approach security at scale. This includes:
- High-signal security reviews led by elite specialized researchers. High-signal security reviews led by elite specialized researchers. These retainer-based reviews focused on architectural integrity, smart contract modularity, and edge-case handling across facets and execution layers. The reviews included targeted testing of LI.FI's Diamond contract and its routing logic.
- The $450,000 crowdsourced competition brought the broader security research community into scope. Each submission was reviewed by Cantina’s and LI.FI’s’s core teams, enabling consistent scoring and high reviewer signal.
- A publicly accessible bug bounty of $1,000,000 remains live on Cantina. It invites continuous testing of LI.FI's contracts by the global researcher community. The program targets the src/ directory of LI.FI’s contracts repo, including the Diamond contract and all facet implementations. Researchers are encouraged to submit high-impact findings with clear proofs of concept. The goal is sustained, high-signal scrutiny of LI.FI’s core architecture.
Engineering for Security by Design
LI.FI applies proven design patterns and safety mechanisms throughout its contract architecture. Some, but not limited to, examples being:
- Safe Permit Handling: All permit() logic is wrapped in try-catch to prevent signature reuse or pre-consumption from breaking execution paths
- Bounded Approvals: Transfers use exact token allowances instead of global approvals to limit risk exposure
- Code Consistency: Internal structures and naming patterns are designed for clarity, reducing audit overhead and long-term maintenance complexity
- Verified Libraries: Utilities like Solady’s safeApproveWithRetry() safeguard interactions across inconsistent ERC20 implementations
How LI.FI Turns Infrastructure into a Security Advantage
As previously mentioned, LI.FI does not rely solely on security reviews. Their commitment to extending security engagements demonstrates an active dedication to security excellence. Whereas many protocols treat reviews as point-in-time events, LI.FI operates through continuous and comprehensive validation. This model benefits not only end users but also developers and integrators.
From this ongoing commitment, several key security practices emerge that can serve as benchmarks for the broader industry.
LI.FI’s Security Practices to Emulate
- Design smart contracts using modular patterns to isolate risk and streamline review
- Incorporate structured error handling and token approval safeguards
- Validate all routing paths for precision and slippage consistency
- Publicly commit to issue resolution transparency and changelog discipline
- Create long-term security incentives through open bug bounty programs
- Leverage both core-team reviews and external researcher competitions to maximize signal
Summarizing the impact, LI.FI excels across multiple dimensions that define modern cross-chain infrastructure. It combines broad protocol coverage, modular architecture, and embedded security practices into a framework that both developers and enterprises can adopt with confidence.
To put that into perspective, the table below outlines the core categories where infrastructure providers are evaluated, and shows how LI.FI’s capabilities stand out in each.
Standing Out in Cross-Chain Infrastructure
Conclusion
Cross-chain infrastructure demands a high standard of security and LI.FI demonstrates that it’s possible to innovate quickly while leading with security-first mind. Its collaboration with Cantina, transparent reviews, and the ongoing $1M bug bounty program exemplify what it means to build secure, composable, and trustworthy systems in Web3.
For developers, partners, and security researchers looking to integrate or contribute, LI.FI represents not only an industry benchmark but an open invitation to build securely.
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