Victoria d’Este
Printed: August 22, 2025 at 10:28 am Up to date: August 22, 2025 at 10:28 am
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August 22, 2025 at 10:28 am
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Ether.fi, now Ethereum’s fourth-largest protocol with $12B secured, is increasing past staking right into a crypto-native neobank, with co-founder Rok Kopp highlighting liquid restaking, AVSs, and the way forward for DeFi banking.
ether.fi has grown into the fourth-largest protocol on Ethereum, securing greater than $12 billion in belongings and a couple of.6 million ETH, an achievement its co-founder Rok Kopp attributes to constructing past staking into full-scale DeFi banking companies. On this dialog, he shares how liquid restaking reshapes threat and rewards, why Actively Validated Companies (AVSs) are key to the longer term, and the way ether.fi goals to evolve right into a crypto-native neobank.
Might you begin by introducing your self and ether.fi?
My title is Rok, and I’m one of many co-founders of ether.fi, which is a liquid restaking platform. We’re constructing what you could possibly name a DeFi financial institution, a spot the place it can save you, make investments, and spend your crypto belongings. Our aim is to deliver reward-bearing belongings to crypto that may also be utilized in actual life.
We provide most returns on ETH, Bitcoin, USD, and we’re including extra belongings. Basically, we wish to present all of the companies a conventional financial institution would, however for crypto. My background is in Web2 startups, and I’ve been constructing on this area for the final three years. Right now, ether.fi is the fourth-largest protocol on Ethereum, with over $12 billion in belongings.
How does liquid restaking with platforms like ether.fi change the risk-reward trade-offs in comparison with conventional staking fashions?
Early on, folks had been nervous about staking due to perceived dangers, however the fact is that these dangers are extraordinarily low. In the event you’re at the least semi-competent, you’re unlikely to get slashed. The Ethereum Basis has performed plenty of good work to make staking safe, with upgrades like Pectra.
With restaking, there isn’t way more threat, however the rewards are greater, round 50 foundation factors extra on common in comparison with common staking. Plus, our liquidity is nearly as good as, if not higher than, most liquid staking tokens.
What methods are evolving for yield optimization in DeFi with tokenized restaked ETH like eETH?
There are many alternatives. Certainly one of our key merchandise is ether.fi Liquid, which is basically tokenized, managed DeFi methods. Customers deposit belongings, after which a vault and technique supervisor optimizes the place.
The returns differ, ETH has been round 8%, USD is presently at 12–13%, whereas BTC is decrease, simply a few %. The concept is to make it very easy for folks to earn extra on their belongings. We focus primarily on ETH, BTC, and USD, and just lately launched a Hype Vault, which has been very talked-about.
What infrastructure and threat administration challenges come up when integrating restaked belongings into greater than 400 DeFi protocols?
There are quite a bit. We rely closely on suppliers, particularly Oracles, and we put important effort into integrating our belongings seamlessly throughout protocols. Our technique has been “say sure to every little thing.” We needed ether.fi to be ubiquitous in DeFi.
That meant guaranteeing that wherever folks go in DeFi, they’ll use our belongings. We labored laborious to ensure that not having ether.fi-supported tokens would by no means be a barrier.
Ether.fi now dominates restaking with 2.6 million ETH. What drove this development?
We at all times knew that staking by itself wasn’t sufficient. From the beginning, our imaginative and prescient was to construct extra merchandise on high of staking. That’s why we’ve liquid merchandise, money merchandise, and shortly commerce merchandise.
For instance, quickly you’ll be capable of commerce perps, shares, and extra straight on ether.fi. Consider it like a banking app, Robinhood within the U.S. or Revolut in Europe, the place you may handle every little thing in a single place. Increasing past staking into actual utility was key, and our deep integration with DeFi helped speed up adoption.
How may companies like ether.fi reshape DeFi staking into broader shopper finance?
I feel it would turn out to be commonplace. Similar to banks supply financial savings accounts with returns, crypto banks will do the identical. Wanting forward, I imagine most finance will run on crypto rails, however shoppers gained’t even discover.
The crypto layer will likely be abstracted away, and other people will simply use easy apps. That’s why constructing companies that mirror on a regular basis monetary instruments is so essential for adoption and ecosystem development.
What about regulatory uncertainties? How do they impression liquid staking?
Truthfully, I don’t suppose there are a lot of left. The SEC just lately clarified that liquid staking tokens aren’t securities, which was the principle concern. That’s now formally resolved, so I really feel superb about the place issues stand.
Wanting ahead, I anticipate to see extra digital asset trusts (DATs) and even ETFs transferring into DeFi within the close to future.
How do protocols handle systemic dangers like slashing, sensible contract failures, or liquidity crunches?
It’s complicated, however our engineering group handles it very well. We monitor a variety of KPIs to verify the system stays wholesome, and we act shortly if something goes off steadiness.
We audit closely, and we keep on high of node operators to verify they carry out accurately. Liquidity crunches can occur, however the bottom line is fixing them quick. We’ve at all times processed withdrawals one-to-one, and we’re an overcollateralized protocol.
The most important threat is wise contract failure, so we persistently audit our contracts to make sure safety.
What technical enhancements may increase the attraction of restaking?
The most important driver will likely be AVSs (Actively Validated Companies) paying out actual rewards. Proper now, EigenLayer is subsidizing a lot of the ecosystem. Nonetheless, with new initiatives like CAP Labs launching quickly, AVSs will begin incentivizing restaked ETH straight.
That’s when development will actually speed up—when customers see clear worth from AVSs.
How would possibly tokenization, akin to eBTC or eUSD, have an effect on cross-asset restaking methods?
Every asset comes with its personal challenges. Symbiotic has been nice at enabling cross-asset restaking, however we’ve principally stayed in our lane. We work with EigenLayer and Symbiotic for ETH, and with Babylon and Lombard for BTC. USD isn’t restaked but.
Proper now, there’s truly extra provide of restaking than demand, so the market nonetheless wants time to steadiness.
What ecosystem developments may disrupt or elevate the restaking mannequin?
On the technical aspect, Pectra was a robust improve. However on the ecosystem degree, once more, it comes again to AVSs. For restaking to thrive, AVSs must create actual utility and worth. That’s what’s going to in the end show out the mannequin.
How do you see DeFi evolving to standardize restaking protocols?
I’d argue we’re already near standardization. Wrapped ETH is without doubt one of the most used belongings in DeFi.
The actual differentiator is integrity, processing withdrawals reliably, sustaining liquidity, and doing precisely what you promise. Sadly, simply doing what you say places you within the high 5% of crypto firms. We’ve at all times held ourselves to that prime commonplace, and it’s been an enormous a part of our success.
Might you share ether.fi’s roadmap for the approaching 12 months?
Completely. Our imaginative and prescient is to do every little thing a conventional financial institution does, however for crypto. We launched ether.fi Money a couple of months in the past, and it’s been an enormous success, 6,000 playing cards are used each day, and almost 100,000 folks have signed up. The expansion has exceeded our expectations.
Subsequent up is ether.fi Commerce, which is able to let customers commerce perps, shares, and extra straight within the app. The concept is straightforward: no matter a financial institution provides, ether.fi ought to supply as properly.
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About The Creator
Victoria is a author on a wide range of expertise matters together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to write down insightful articles for the broader viewers.
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Victoria d’Este
Victoria is a author on a wide range of expertise matters together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to write down insightful articles for the broader viewers.
