- DeFi capital is mostly institutional, but infrastructure still targets retail users.
- Liquidity fragmentation and protocol inefficiencies hinder large-scale institutional deployment.
- Sentora and Trident aim to build institutional-grade DeFi with risk tools and structured products.
Sentora, formerly IntoTheBlock, has laid out its updated roadmap following its merger with Trident Digital, outlining key challenges and proposed solutions for building scalable, institutional-grade decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure. The company, which recently closed a $25 million Series A round, aims to streamline capital deployment, improve risk monitoring, and address inefficiencies across fragmented DeFi ecosystems.
One of Sentora’s primary issues is the imbalance between the rapid growth of blockchain infrastructure and the limited pace of capital inflows. The firm noted that the number of protocols and networks has grown significantly, while the volume of new participants and capital providers has lagged. This discrepancy has created substantial total value locked (TVL) fragmentation and increased exposure to risk for protocols with limited liquidity.
Sentora’s research shows that a major portion of DeFi capital is concentrated among large institutional players. In one analysis, the top 100 depositors accounted for 185% of the capital in a leading DeFi protocol. Despite this concentration, most DeFi systems remain structured for retail use, lacking institutional safeguards such as risk coverage, deep liquidity, or compliance infrastructure.
Technical and Structural Gaps Undermine Adoption
Sentora’s team identified key technical and financial barriers preventing broader institutional engagement. The firm emphasized the need for improved user experience, cross-chain interoperability, and integrations with custodial platforms like Fireblocks and BitGo to allow seamless capital movement. Without these, institutions face friction when attempting to allocate capital across decentralized systems.
On the financial side, Sentora underscored the importance of yield abstraction, stablecoin availability, and lending market coverage. The team stressed that ecosystems must include deep liquidity pools, robust decentralized exchange (DEX) integration, and properly configured incentives to sustain long-term activity.
Risk management and insurance remain critical areas under development. Sentora confirmed ongoing internal research into decentralized insurance products, highlighting that prior efforts have failed, but the need for protection against protocol exploits remains unresolved.
Institutional DeFi Needs Coordinated Infrastructure Development
The merger of Sentora and Trident Digital was positioned as a strategic effort to build a universal layer for institutional DeFi. Sentora emphasized that new primitives—particularly structured products, lending models for tokenized real-world assets, and interoperability tools—are essential to transition DeFi into a parallel financial system capable of supporting large-scale institutional operations.
The company concluded with an upcoming session scheduled for June 18, focused on DeFi risk evaluation models, as it continues refining its approach to institutional-grade DeFi solutions.
