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How Ether.fi Retained TVL as Restaking Lost Its Luster

Published

6 месяцев ago

20 марта, 2025

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A year ago, restaking was one of the hottest areas of crypto, and projects like EigenLayer were heralded as the next big thing.

Fast forward to mid-2025 and total value locked (TVL) has fallen across the sector and the hype that surrounded point farms has withered away.

Through it all, Ether.fi, the market leader, has stayed steady, helping users generate yield through liquid staking tokens (LSTs) that can be staked across the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Now, Ether.fi is looking to expand with plans to become a neobank for crypto companies and users.

Ether.fi’s dominance

Ether.fi, which is based in the Cayman Islands, benefited from being one of the first movers in the liquid restaking space, starting up a lucrative points farm which saw early users receive points that could eventually be transferred into a token airdrop.

In a 10 week period at the start of 2024, staked ETH grew from 45,000 ETH to 808,000 ETH. Now, there is 2.58 million staked ETH on Ether.fi while the next competitor, Renzo, has around 380,000 ETH.

In dollar terms, Ether.fi has around $5 billion worth of TVL. This number has slumped from December’s high of $9.4 billion but only due to the dwindling price of ETH, as opposed to any significant outflows.

Ether.fi engages closely with its users in an effort to keep them onboard.

«We know probably half the TVL,» Silagadze added. «As in, we know who they are and we talk to them and have ongoing conversations.»

Renzo in contrast has seen more than 60% ETH withdrawn from the platform since last July, with TVL sliding from 1 million ETH to 378,000 ETH, according to DefiLlama.

From restaking protocol to Neobank

For Silvagadze, the restaking product is a means to onboard users and capital, while the company’s main ambition is to become a neobank to rival the likes of Revolut.

«Staking for us was really just a way of building TVL and getting a user base,» Silagadze told CoinDesk. «The ultimate goal is to create an integrated product suite that allows users to fully off ramp from their traditional banking institutions and operate on a crypto native platform.»

Ether.fi rolled out a «Cash» Visa card on the Scroll network in September and Silagadze believes this will become the company’s main revenue driver.

Neobank has become quite the buzzword in crypto of late. Lending platform Nexo rebranded last year as a neobank and there was also the stealth launch of Dakota, a crypto app that will provide banking services to crypto depositors. EOS, which launched as a much-heralded smart contract platform in 2017, has also shifted focus to Web3 banking.

For Ether.fi, the plan is to incorporate three products into one soon-to-be released mobile app.

The app will comprise three integrated products: Ether.fi stake, which is the staking protocol; Ether.fi liquid, which is an automated DeFi strategy manager that generates the best available yield through the use of AI; and the Ether.fi cash wallet and credit card.

Staking firms looking to serve the U.S. market have been put off by an absence of a clear regulatory framework.

But Ether.fi hopes the crypto-friendly Trump administration will smooth the way for it to offer services to U.S. citizens after it secures respective licenses.

«We are actually going to be turning on the U.S. for our staking product and the cash product relatively soon. We actually just got a legal opinion that we’re cool to do that,» Silvagadze said. Ether.fi is also applying for licenses to operate in the European Union and the Cayman Islands, where its team operates.

Ethereum’s sentiment problem

Ethereum was the darling of the 2017 bull market and subsequent ICO boom and was the dominant smart contract chain as DeFi and NFTs animated the 2020-22 boom.

This cycle, however, the Ethereum network has been criticized for a drawn-out roadmap as the market centers on memecoins and faster blockchains like Solana.

Ether is currently trading at around $1,965, having lost 40% of its value over the past 12-months. Solana, meanwhile, is trading at $131 having lost just 25% of its value in the same period.

«Some of that [negative sentiment] is clearly engineered by competing ecosystems. The Solana folks are out there every single day talking to investors and allocators and media and just spreading bulls**t about ether,» Silagadze said.

«If you actually dissect those arguments, they’re incoherent. But those memes are floating around, and that has an effect.»

Business

Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

Published

4 часа ago

16 сентября, 2025

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Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Keyrock, founded in Brussels, Belgium and best known for its work in market making, options and OTC trading, said it will fold Turing Capital’s investment strategies and Luxembourg fund management structure into its wider platform. The division will be led by Turing Capital co-founder Jorge Schnura, who joins Keyrock’s executive committee as president of the unit.

The company said the expansion will allow it to provide services across the full lifecycle of digital assets, from liquidity provision to long-term investment strategies. «In the near future, all assets will live onchain,» Schnura said, noting that the merger positions the group to capture opportunities as traditional financial products migrate to blockchain rails.

Keyrock has also applied for regulatory approval under the EU’s crypto framework MiCA through a filing with Liechtenstein’s financial regulator. If approved, the firm plans to offer portfolio management and advisory services, aiming to compete directly with traditional asset managers as well as crypto-native players.

«Today’s launch sets the stage for our longer-term ambition: bringing asset management on-chain in a way that truly meets institutional standards,» Keyrock CSO Juan David Mendieta said in a statement.

Business

Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

Published

4 часа ago

16 сентября, 2025

admin

Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Business

Gemini Shares Slide 6%, Extending Post-IPO Slump to 24%

Published

5 часов ago

16 сентября, 2025

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Gemini Space Station (GEMI), the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has seen its shares tumble by more than 20% since listing on the Nasdaq last Friday.

The stock is down around 6% on Tuesday, trading at $30.42, and has dropped nearly 24% over the past week. The sharp decline follows an initial surge after the company raised $425 million in its IPO, pricing shares at $28 and valuing the firm at $3.3 billion before trading began.

On its first day, GEMI spiked to $45.89 before closing at $32 — a 14% premium to its offer price. But since hitting that high, shares have plunged more than 34%, erasing most of the early enthusiasm from public market investors.

The broader crypto equity market has remained more stable. Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. crypto exchange, is flat over the past week. Robinhood (HOOD), which derives part of its revenue from crypto, is down 3%. Token issuer Circle (CRCL), on the other hand, is up 13% over the same period.

Part of the pressure on Gemini’s stock may stem from its financials. The company posted a $283 million net loss in the first half of 2025, following a $159 million loss in all of 2024. Despite raising fresh capital, the numbers suggest the business is still far from turning a profit.

Compass Point analyst Ed Engel noted that GEMI is currently trading at 26 times its annualized first-half revenue. That multiple — often used to gauge whether a stock is expensive — means investors are paying 26 dollars for every dollar the company is expected to generate in sales this year. For a loss-making company in a volatile sector, that’s a steep price, and could be fueling investor skepticism.