As Ethereum closes out a pivotal institutional year, ether.fi CEO and co-founder Mike Silagadze is already looking ahead to 2026, and believes the network’s next phase will be defined less by speculation and more by financial products that are familiar to everyday users, he told CoinDesk in an interview.
Ether.fi is best known for its Ethereum recovery platform, but has since expanded its focus towards creating crypto-native neobanking products that combine yield, self-custody, and on-chain financial services. Silagadze to speak at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference in February 2026
Silagadze described the year 2025 as a turning point for Ethereum, marked by a wave of institutional incorporation. While betting remains limited within ETFs, Silagadze said other institutional vehicles, such as digital asset treasuries (DATs), have moved faster.
“Many of them have already started to be implemented on ether.fi,” he said, calling early adopters “very ahead of the curve.” DATs, he added, “certainly had a positive impact on the price” of ether.
Ether hit its lowest point in 2025 at $1,472 in April, while during the height of the DAT trend, ether soared to $4,832.
Looking ahead, Silagadze said his excitement for 2026 centers on the continued maturation of the Ethereum financial ecosystem.
“The whole crypto neobanking movement… seems to be a rapidly growing trend, just a lot of companies going into the space and seeing growth there,” he said.
In Silagadze’s view, neobanks represent one of the clearest paths to sustained adoption, especially as stablecoins become more deeply rooted in global finance. These platforms, he argued, are better positioned than ETFs to expose users to on-chain activity and performance.
Ultimately, Silagadze said he believes Ethereum’s success in 2026 will depend on its ability to deliver practical utility at scale.
“I really think adoption will come from a lot of these neobank-type players,” he said, arguing that more user activity will naturally follow. That means focusing on “more real-world use cases,” from tokenized stocks to accessible banking services, and moving beyond what he sees as an overemphasis on gambling-driven applications.
Read more: How Ether.fi’s Mike Silagadze held on to TVL as the recovery lost its shine
