As Ethereum closes a pivotal institutional year, Ether.fi CEO and co-founder Mike Silagadze is already looking ahead to 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 restructuring platform on Ethereum, 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 2025 as a turning point for Ethereum, marked by a wave of institutional integration. Although staking remains limited within ETFs, Silagadze said other institutional vehicles, like digital asset treasuries (DATs), have evolved more quickly.
“A number of them have already started to deploy on ether.fi,” he said, calling these early adopters “very cutting edge.” DATs, he added, “have certainly had a positive impact on the price” of ether.
Ether was at its 2025 low at $1,472 in April, while at the height of the DAT trend, ether climbed as high as $4,832.
Looking ahead, Silagadze said his excitement for 2026 is centered on the continued maturation of Ethereum’s financial ecosystem.
“The whole crypto neobank movement…seems to be a rapidly growing trend, with many companies going into the space and seeing growth there,” he said.
According to Silagadze, neobanks represent one of the clearest paths to sustainable adoption, especially as stablecoins become more deeply entrenched in global finance. According to him, 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 on its ability to provide practical utility at scale.
“I really believe adoption will come from a lot of these neobank-type players,” he said, arguing that more user activity would naturally follow. That means focusing on “more real-world use cases,” from symbolic actions to accessible banking, and moving beyond what he sees as an overemphasis on gaming-based applications.
Read more: How Ether.fi’s Mike Silagadze kept TVL as the revival lost its luster
