“Ethereum’s next phase will be defined by financial products that feel familiar to everyday users, Mike Silagadze said.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
Ether.fi is best known for its restaking platform on Ethereum, but has since expanded its focus toward building crypto-native neobanking products that combine yield, self-custody and onchain financial services. Silagadze will be speaking 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 staking remains limited within ETFs, Silagadze said other institutional vehicles, like digital asset treasuries (DATs) have moved faster.
“A bunch of them have already started deploying into ether.fi,” he said, calling those early adopters “very much on the bleeding edge.” DATs, he added, “certainly had a positive impact on the price” of ether.
Ether was at its lowest point in 2025 at $1,472 in April, while during the height of the DAT trend, ether shot up to $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 to be like a rapidly growing trend, just lots of companies going into 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 embedded in global finance. These platforms, he argued, are better positioned than ETFs to expose users to onchain activity and yield.
Ultimately, Silagadze said he believes Ethereum’s success in 2026 will depend on its ability to deliver practical utility at scale.
“I really believe that the adoption is going to 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 Retained TVL as Restaking Lost Its Luster
KuCoin captured a record share of centralized exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the broader crypto market.
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per monthmarking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralized exchange volumeas KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumeswhich slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly spliteach exceeding $500 billion for the year, signaling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activityreinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activityindicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Ethereum saw a surge in institutional adoption and progress on scaling in 2025, while Solana was stress-testing the network and hardening its infrastructure.
- The year 2025 has emerged as a year of consolidation, with major layer-1 networks laying the groundwork for the tooling and technology that will lead to better interoperability, as well as pushing forward with real-world financial use cases.
- For Ethereum, that meant a surge in institutional adoption and steady progress on scaling, while builders increasingly looked toward interoperability as the key challenge heading into 2026.
- For Solana, the focus was on stress-testing the network under real demand and hardening its infrastructure, setting the stage for deeper financial use cases in the year ahead.
- Together, the two networks offer a glimpse into how the industry’s leading platforms are positioning themselves for the next wave of adoption.
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