What is Ether.fi? Ether.fi is a non-custodial Ethereum staking and liquid-restaking protocol that lets users stake ETH while receiving liquid assets that can be used across decentralized finance. Its ecosystem combines liquid staking, automated vaults, borrowing, governance and payment products.
How Ether.fi works
Users deposit ETH into Ether.fi smart contracts and receive eETH, a rebasing liquid staking token, or weETH, its non-rebasing wrapped version. eETH balances can increase as rewards accrue, while weETH keeps a stable token balance and reflects rewards through its exchange rate. weETH is designed for lending, trading, collateral and automated DeFi strategies.
Ether.fi coordinates validators through a distributed node-operator network. Its staking materials state that more than 20,000 node operators participate globally. The protocol’s current documentation says eETH and weETH earn Ethereum consensus-layer and execution-layer staking rewards. Although EigenLayer was central to Ether.fi’s earlier liquid-restaking model, the project states that these assets no longer include additional EigenLayer exposure as of August 2026.
The ETHFI token is deployed on Ethereum, Arbitrum One, Base and Scroll. The Ethereum contract address is 0xfe0c30065b384f05761f15d0cc899d4f9f9cc0eb.
Primary uses and products
Ether.fi’s main use case is liquid staking. Instead of leaving staked ETH locked in a validator position, users can use eETH or weETH in lending markets, liquidity pools, trading venues and yield strategies. Ether.fi states that weETH is integrated with more than 400 DeFi protocols.
Ether.fi Liquid provides automated vaults for ETH, eETH, stablecoins and other supported assets. These vaults allocate funds across external DeFi protocols and strategies, reducing the need for users to manage each position manually.
The platform has also expanded into consumer financial services. Ether.fi Cash connects self-custodied balances with spending, fiat transfers, portfolio borrowing and a payment card. Its 2026 product updates added or expanded tokenized stock and metals trading, while an Aave market on Optimism supports borrowing against eligible portfolios. These products introduce dependencies on smart contracts, bridges, lending markets and third-party providers.
Who is behind Ether.fi and where is it based?
Ether.fi was founded in 2022, according to company-profile information, and publicly developed its initial staking protocol during 2023. Mike Silagadze is the founder and CEO, while Rok Kopp is a co-founder and Chief Growth Officer. The company announced a $23 million Series A led by Bullish Capital and CoinFund on 28 February 2024.
The company is associated with George Town, Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands, and also lists New York as an office location. Its published legal terms identify Ether.Fi SEZC as a Special Economic Zone Company organized under Cayman Islands law. Public materials also refer to an Ether.fi Foundation, but the foundation’s separate legal jurisdiction was not confirmed in the available sources.
Key technical personnel include Rupert Klopper and Seongyun Ko, both identified as engineering leaders. Matthew Finlayson is Senior Vice President of Engineering, while smart-contract specialists including Shivam A. and Pankaj Jagtap have worked on Ether.fi Cash and protocol security.
ETHFI tokenomics
ETHFI is Ether.fi’s governance and ecosystem token. CoinStats reports a circulating supply of 965,350,000 ETHFI and a total supply of 965,350,000 ETHFI. Ether.fi’s governance materials state that the maximum fully minted supply is 1,000,000,000 ETHFI, with no further issuance under the stated token design.
The published allocation is 33.74% for investors, 21.63% for the DAO treasury, 21.47% for core contributors, 17.57% for user airdrops and 5.60% for partnerships. Investor allocations vest over two years, while core-contributor allocations vest over three years, both with a one-year cliff.
ETHFI holders participate in DAO governance through forum discussions and Snapshot voting. Governance has also addressed treasury-funded buybacks, but buyback size and execution depend on approved proposals rather than representing a permanent supply mechanism.
CoinStats records ETHFI at $0.7774, with a 24h change of -0.54%, a market cap of $750.49M (rank #124) and 24h volume of $55.71M. Its all-time high was $8.53, leaving the current price 90.89% below it.
Consensus and security model
Ether.fi does not operate its own blockchain or consensus system. The underlying staking activity uses Ethereum proof of stake, while Ether.fi adds smart contracts, liquid-token accounting, validator coordination and withdrawal infrastructure.
Security depends on Ethereum’s validator network, node-operator performance, protocol contracts and external DeFi integrations. Ether.fi migrated its application infrastructure to OP Mainnet in April 2026 and published bridge-security and staking-security updates during 2026.
Partnerships and development direction
Important integrations include EigenLayer historically, Aave on Optimism, Morpho and Paxos for Liquid Reserve, Veda for vault infrastructure, Scroll for earlier Cash settlement and Optimism for current application infrastructure. Ether.fi also reported a July 2026 Credora A+ risk rating for weETH.
Development in 2026 has focused on moving beyond liquid restaking into a broader self-custody financial application. Key milestones included the OP Mainnet migration, bridge-security hardening, expanded Cash functionality, automated Liquid vaults, portfolio borrowing and the separation of native staking products from additional EigenLayer exposure.