As Ethereum wraps up an important institutional year, ether.fi CEO and co-founder Mike Silagadze is already looking toward 2026, and he believes the next phase of the network will be defined less by speculation and more by financial products that feel familiar to everyday users, he told CoinDesk in an interview.
Ether.fi is best known for its restaking platform on Ethereum, but has since shifted its focus to building crypto-native neobanking products that combine yield, self-custody, and onchain financial services. Silagadze to speak at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference in February 2026
Silagadze described 2025 as a turning point for Ethereum, marked by a wave of institutional onboarding. While stakes within ETFs have been limited, Silagadze said other institutional vehicles, such as digital asset treasuries (DATs) have grown rapidly.
“A bunch of them have already started deploying to ether.fi,” he said, adding that those early adopters “are bleeding heavily.” DAT “definitely had a positive impact” on the price of ether, he said.
In April, Ether was at its lowest point in 2025 at $1,472, while during the height of the DAT trend, Ether reached $4,832.
Looking ahead, Silagadze said his excitement for 2026 centers on the continued maturation of Ethereum’s financial ecosystem.
“The whole crypto neobank movement… seems like a rapidly growing trend, just a lot of companies moving into the space and seeing growth there,” he said.
In Silagadze’s view, neobanks represent one of the clearest paths to continued adoption, especially as stablecoins become more deeply embedded in global finance. He argued that these platforms are better positioned than ETFs to expose users to on-chain activity and yield.
Ultimately, Silagadze said he believes Ethereum’s success in 2026 will depend largely on its ability to provide practical utility at scale.
“I really believe this will be adopted by a lot of these neobank type players,” he said, arguing that more user activity will naturally follow. This means focusing on “more real-world use cases,” ranging from tokenized stocks to accessible banking services, and moving away from what he sees as an overemphasis on gambling-driven applications.
Read More: How Ether.fi’s Mike Silagadze Maintains TVL as Restacking Loses Its Luster