Bitfi

Bitfi has a dual identity within the digital asset space, originating as a hardware wallet provider and more recently emerging as a CeDeFi platform under new leadership.

The initial company was established in 2018 by co-founders Daniel Khesin and Michael Strong. Khesin brought over two decades of experience in building technology businesses, while Strong, serving as President & CTO, had a background in developing shipping automation software for UPS through his prior company, Rokits. Together, they launched the Bitfi hardware wallet, a physical device designed for cryptocurrency storage. Its core operational feature was that it did not store private keys directly on the device; instead, it calculated them on-the-fly using a secret user-generated phrase. This process was intended to make the funds inaccessible even if the device was lost, stolen, or forensically analyzed. The wallet gained significant public attention through its association with cybersecurity figure John McAfee, who promoted it as "unhackable" and backed a bounty program for anyone who could compromise it. This claim attracted scrutiny from the security community, which subsequently identified several vulnerabilities, leading Bitfi to eventually withdraw the "unhackable" assertion.

In 2024, the Bitfi brand was redefined with the launch of a new CeDeFi (Centralized Decentralized Finance) platform. This iteration was founded by Han Liu, who previously served as the co-founder and CTO of the Ascendex (formerly Bitmax) crypto exchange and began his career as a quantitative analyst at BlackRock. This new entity focuses on providing yield-generating opportunities for digital assets, particularly Bitcoin. The business model combines centralized finance strategies, such as deploying assets to quantitative trading firms that use delta-neutral arbitrage techniques, with decentralized finance protocols to generate returns for its users. In July 2024, this new Bitfi announced a seed funding round with a $50 million valuation, attracting investments from firms including Fundamental Labs, IBC Group, and CGV FoF. The platform serves institutional and retail crypto holders seeking to earn yield on their assets through a hybrid financial model that aims to blend the security of CeFi with the opportunities of DeFi.

Keywords: crypto hardware wallet, secure crypto storage, John McAfee, Daniel Khesin, Michael Strong, CeDeFi, DeFi, Bitcoin yield, asset management, Liu Han, Ascendex, quantitative trading, crypto staking, digital asset security, hybrid finance, institutional crypto, Fundamental Labs, crypto investment platform, delta-neutral strategies, blockchain finance