As Ethereum closes out a pivotal institutional 12 months, ether.fi CEO and co-founder Mike Silagadze is already looking forward to 2026, and he believes the community’s subsequent part shall be outlined much less by hypothesis and extra by monetary merchandise that really feel acquainted to on a regular basis customers, he advised CoinDesk in an interview.
Ether.fi is finest identified for its restaking platform on Ethereum, however has since expanded its focus towards constructing crypto-native neobanking merchandise that mix yield, self-custody and onchain monetary providers. Silagadze shall be talking at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong convention in February 2026
Silagadze described 2025 as a turning level for Ethereum, marked by a wave of institutional onboarding. Whereas staking stays restricted inside ETFs, Silagadze mentioned different institutional automobiles, like digital asset treasuries (DATs) have moved quicker.
“A bunch of them have already began deploying into ether.fi,” he mentioned, calling these early adopters “very a lot on the bleeding edge.” DATs he added, “definitely had a optimistic affect on the value” of ether.
Ether was at its lowest level in 2025 at $1,472 in April, whereas through the peak of the DAT development, ether shot as much as $4,832.
Trying forward, Silagadze mentioned his pleasure for 2026 facilities on the continued maturation of Ethereum’s monetary ecosystem.
“The entire crypto neobank motion… appears to be like a quickly rising development, simply a number of firms going into house and seeing development there,” he mentioned.
In Silagadze’s view, neobanks characterize one of many clearest paths to sustained adoption, particularly as stablecoins turn out to be extra deeply embedded in world finance. These platforms, he argued, are higher positioned than ETFs to reveal customers to onchain exercise and yield.
In the end, Silagadze mentioned he believes Ethereum’s success in 2026 will rely on its potential to ship sensible utility at scale.
“I actually imagine that the adoption goes to come back from a variety of these neobank kind gamers,” he mentioned, arguing that extra person exercise will naturally comply with. Meaning specializing in “extra real-world use circumstances,” from tokenized shares to accessible banking providers, and transferring past what he sees as an overemphasis on gambling-driven purposes.
Learn extra: How Ether.fi’s Mike Silagadze Retained TVL as Restaking Misplaced Its Luster
