Institutions can now access liquidity on Venus while their collateral remains secured in Ceffu’s custody, no self-custody,or smart contract transfer required.
Venus Protocol, the leading decentralized lending market on BNB Chain, today announced an integration with Ceffu, the institutional digital-asset custody platform, to extend on-chain lending to professional capital. This integration allows institutions to borrow through Venus while their collateral remains under Ceffu's regulated custody,removing a primary barrier to institutional DeFi adoption.
Overcoming the Custody Barrier, For institutions, the biggest obstacle to DeFi participation isn't yield, it's custody. Concerns surrounding private key management, smart contract risk, and regulatory compliance have historically kept professional capital on the sidelines.
Through the Venus-Ceffu integration, institutions are able to keep their collateral within Ceffu's regulated custody while Ceffu attests to those assets on-chain. Borrowing is executed seamlessly through Venus' markets, allowing institutions to access on-chain liquidity without assets ever leaving institutional custody.
The rollout begins with live lending activity and will expand toward direct borrowing against custody-attested collateral.Assets stay in Ceffu's custody. Liquidity is accessed through Venus. The two worlds meet without either having to become the other.
For the first time, Venus can give institutional participants a credible answer to the custody question and that changes who can be in the room. Professional capital can post collateral that is verifiably held in custody, execute borrowing on a decentralised protocol, and manage the whole arrangement within a framework its risk team can stand behind. For Venus, it means access to a category of capital that has never meaningfully engaged with on-chain lending and the credibility of building with one of the most established custodians in the space.
Venus as the Institutional DeFi Layer on BNB Chain
This integration forms part of Venus’ broader institutional roadmap. Together with the listing of XAUm, a gold-backed RWA with pricing data provided by Chainlink, a clear picture emerges: Venus is assembling the full stack institutional participation requires. RWAs give familiar, regulated collateral. Chainlink gives reliable price truth for off-chain assets. Ceffu gives the custody framework. Each removes a distinct barrier, together they make Venus the most institutionally credible lending protocol on BNB Chain.
“Institutions have never doubted the opportunity in DeFi — they've doubted the infrastructure. By pairing Venus's on-chain markets with Ceffu's regulated custody, professional capital finally has an answer to the custody question. This is how institutional capital comes on-chain on BNB Chain.” — Iris, Head of Venus Protocol
“Institutional participation in DeFi requires infrastructure that combines access to on-chain liquidity with institutional-grade custody as a core security layer. Through this integration with Venus Protocol, we’re creating a framework where institutions can access lending opportunities while their collateral remains securely managed within Ceffu’s custody.” — Ian Loh, Ceffu
About
Venus Protocol is the leading decentralized lending protocol on BNB Chain, supporting over 30 assets with more than 80 independent audits and $2.8 billion in TVL reached in 2025.
Ceffu is a compliant, institutional-grade custody platform offering custody and liquidity solutions that are ISO 27001 & 27701 certified and SOC2 Type 2 attested. Our multi-party computation (MPC) technology, combined with a customizable multi-approval scheme, provides bespoke solutions allowing institutional clients to safely store and manage their virtual assets.