- Mike Silagadze of ether.fi expects 2026 to focus on practical financial products on Ethereum.
- ether.fi has moved from a restaking platform toward crypto-native neobanking that combines yield, self-custody and onchain services.
- Institutional onboarding accelerated in 2025, with digital asset treasuries (DATs) deploying into ether.fi and influencing ether’s market moves.
- Ether hit a low of $1,472 in April 2025 and later rose to $4,832 during the DAT trend.
- Silagadze argues neobanks and tokenized, banking-style products will drive broader onchain adoption in 2026.
Mike Silagadze, CEO and co-founder of ether.fi, said he expects 2026 to shift Ethereum’s focus from speculation to familiar financial products that reach everyday users. He made the remarks while outlining his company’s move from restaking to building crypto-native neobanking services that mix yield, self-custody and onchain finance. He is scheduled to speak at the Consensus Hong Kong conference in February 2026.
Silagadze described 2025 as a turning point for Ethereum, marked by increased institutional onboarding. He said staking via ETFs stayed limited, but other institutional vehicles moved faster. In particular, he highlighted digital asset treasuries as early deployers into ether.fi.
He said many institutional adopters were aggressive in testing new services. “A bunch of them have already started deploying into ether.fi,” he said, calling those clients “very much on the bleeding edge.” He added that DATs “certainly had a positive impact on the price.”
Market data cited by Silagadze showed ether at a low of $1,472 in April 2025 and later rising during the DAT trend to a peak that reached $4,832. He linked that price action to the institutional deployments he described.
Looking toward 2026, Silagadze pointed to the growth of crypto neobanks as a clear path for sustained adoption. “The whole crypto neobank movement… seems to be like a rapidly growing trend, just lots of companies going into space and seeing growth there,” he said. He argued these platforms can expose users to onchain activity and yield more directly than ETF products.
Silagadze emphasized practical utility and real-world use cases as keys to wider adoption. “I really believe that the adoption is going to come from a lot of these neobank type players,” he said, urging a move beyond gambling-driven applications toward tokenized stocks and accessible banking services.
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