Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Ether.fi’s CASH card, a Visa-linked product that lets users spend directly from their crypto vaults, has crossed $800 million in cumulative spend as of early September 2026. The kicker: roughly $600 million of that total was racked up this year.

The numbers behind the surge Q1 2026 alone saw $170 million in spend volume, a 35% jump from the previous quarter. By late April, cumulative spending had already cleared $400 million, with monthly volumes regularly topping $50 million even during choppy market conditions.

By early September, the CASH product had processed nearly 10 million transactions. Perhaps more telling than the raw volume is the average transaction size: below $100. That pattern suggests users aren’t making a handful of large purchases to game cashback rewards. They’re buying coffee, paying subscriptions, covering everyday expenses.

Advertisement

The platform currently supports approximately 70,000 active cards and around 300,000 accounts, numbers that grew meaningfully after Ether.fi migrated the CASH product to Optimism’s OP Mainnet in February 2026.

CASH also offers up to 3% cashback on transactions, credited directly back to user vaults.

A revenue engine, not just a feature In Q1 2026, CASH accounted for 26% of Ether.fi’s total revenue, nearly doubling its share from 14.2% in Q4 2025. That revenue comes from a mix of interchange fees, foreign exchange activity, and lending operations tied to the card’s underlying mechanics.

Why this model is different Crypto debit and credit cards aren’t new. Coinbase, Crypto.com, and others have offered them for years. The difference with Ether.fi’s CASH product is the non-custodial structure. Users aren’t depositing funds with a centralized entity that issues a card. They’re spending from self-custodied vaults, meaning the protocol never takes possession of the underlying assets.

The assets continue generating yield while simultaneously serving as the backing for card transactions. With Ether.fi’s model, users aren’t liquidating positions every time they tap to pay. They’re borrowing against them or drawing from earned yield, keeping their core holdings intact.

What to watch from here The trajectory from $200 million at the end of 2025 to $800 million by September 2026 is a fourfold increase in roughly nine months. The 26% revenue contribution in Q1 suggests this isn’t a loss-leader marketing exercise.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Crypto billionaire Arthur Hayes predicts Ethereum price will reach $10,000 by year-end amid fresh liquidity into the crypto market from Fed balance sheet expansion and Treasury bond buybacks. He also forecasts sharp gains in Ethena (ENA) and Ether.fi (ETHFI).

Ethereum Price Could Reach $10,000 by 2020-End, Arthur Hayes Predicts Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom CIO, has issued new year-end 2026 outlook in his latest Substack article “Atencion,” predicting Ethereum price to reach $10,000.

The outlook is based on the expectation that EURJPY will fall from around 185 to 140 or lower by mid-2027. Notably, EURJPY dropped to 182.45 today as the US Treasury announced a $12.5 billion debt buyback on Thursday. This comes as part of the US Treasury’s plan to buy back bonds using a $1 trillion cash cushion.

JUST IN 🚨: U.S. Treasury is forecasted to buy back $12.5 Billion of their own debt tomorrow pic.twitter.com/AyJBxYGqEn

— Barchart (@Barchart) September 2, 2026

Arthur Hayes claimed that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants to sell Euros and buy Yen, with the Bank of Japan (BOJ) also looking to hike rates. This will massively increase US dollar liquidity.

Ethereum price is rebounding from a 24-hour low of $2,357, currently trading at $2,415. Trading volume has decreased slightly in the last 24 hours.

Ethena (ENA) and ETHFI to Rally Arthur Hayes also predicted a massive rally to $0.50 for Ethena (ENA) and $2 for ETHFI. Hayes has repeatedly called Ethereum his top near-term crypto pick, he had invested many times in ENA and ETHFI.

ENA price is trading around $0.153, with an almost 70% rally in a month. Meanwhile, ETHFI is moving near $0.57, down 4.5% today after a 90% rally in the last 3 months. Arthur Hayes pointed to potential three-times rallies if the forecasts materialize.

Recently, Ethena launched Ethena Pay to enter crypto neobanking built on Avalanche that lets users save, spend, transfer and earn with USDe across 48 countries.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is discussing declaring the Iran War over. Trump told aides that continued economic pressure will force the Iranian regime either to dismantle its nuclear program or collapse.

Prediction market traders on Polymarket are pricing roughly a one-in-four odds of Ethereum touching $2,000 during September. The upside is currently more favored, with odds showing a 71% chance the price hits $2500 this month.

Arthur Hayes, closely followed for his statements and predictions in the cryptocurrency market, made noteworthy assessments for Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as Ethereum (ENA) and Ether.fi (ETHFI). Hayes argued that a new bull market has begun and stated that Maelstrom is taking maximum risk on all four assets.

Arthur Hayes, who stated that he expects a major rise in cryptocurrencies, argues that Bitcoin is poised for a parabolic increase.

In a recent interview on the Altcoin Daily YouTube channel, Hayes claimed that Bitcoin is likely to soon experience a full parabolic rise, and therefore now is the right time to hold the asset.

Hayes added that Bitcoin would quickly reach “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and that anyone worried about the Fed’s control over bond yields should own Bitcoin now.

Highlighting ENA! Hayes, who stated that he is optimistic about altcoins as well as Bitcoin, noted that base trading, which profits from the price difference between spot and futures markets, is beginning to revive, and said that this is a positive signal for the crypto market.

However, Hayes noted that interest rates are still too low.

Hayes stated that the reactivation of base trading could be particularly positive for Ethereum (ENA) and that ENA still holds significant upside potential.

In his latest blog post, Hayes stated that the Maelstrom fund is also in maximum risk mode and shared the altcoins in their portfolio.

“Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethena and Ether.fi”

FLOP is an Important Part of a Blog Post! Hayes also dedicates a significant portion of his latest blog post to his new project, Flop Network.

They state that there is no pre-sale for FLOP, the token cannot be purchased, and useful activities on the testnet are required for the airdrop.

“…I repeat: there is no pre-sale. You cannot buy FLOP. Only those who participate in beneficial ways are eligible. Stay tuned for more information about the airdrop…”

Therefore, FLOP should not yet be considered an existing market position like ENA or ETHFI. Hayes positions it more as a new project to be established at the beginning of a new bull market.

*This is not investment advice.

Follow our Telegram and Twitter account now for exclusive news, analytics and on-chain data!

2 hours ago

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has announced it will add trading support for four assets: Biconomy (BICO), BubbleMaps (BMT), Nillion (NIL), and Ether.fi Gas (GWEI). All four assets will be listed with BTC and USDT trading pairs. Specifically, BICO, NIL, and GWEI will be deposited via the Ethereum network, while BMT will use the Solana network. Trading is scheduled to open at 13:00 Korea Standard Time on August 21, with deposit services set to activate within two hours of the announcement’s release. Upbit stated that following the new assets’ listing, buy orders will be restricted for roughly five minutes, and only limit orders will be supported for approximately two hours—other order types are temporarily unavailable. If liquidity is insufficient before or after the listing, the trading opening time may be delayed.

Scan the QR code

Download APP

Is Arthur Hayes Crypto’s Jim Cramer? 124 Trades Show a Clear Pattern

Ether.fi [ETHFI] has been on the higher side in the past, delivering an 18% gain, with the asset now on a 90-day streak of roughly 5.3% performance for the first time in a while.

The performance is closely linked to the on-chain market outlook, which shows there has been growing usage of the protocol, especially through fee generation and activity.

On-chain activity supports ETHFI’s growth
The clearest indication of growing usage of the protocol comes from its performance, which shows that users remain active.

The protocol’s fees have surged on a week-on-week basis to their highest level since the week starting June 1. Fees have reached $2.8 million, up from a low of $2.39 million for the week between June 22 and 28.

Higher fee generation points to growing activity on the protocol, with annualized revenue reaching over $50.56 million and revenue over the last 30 days standing at $2.93 million.

Source: DeFiLlama
The total value locked also shows steady growth, indicating that investors continue to deposit and lock their assets on the platform for long-term price performance and yield.

During the week between June 22 and 28, when fees dropped to their recent low, TVL also surged at the time of writing, rising from $2.83 billion to $3.532 billion, an increase of roughly $702 million.

On a short-term scale, the growth remains visible, with the protocol’s TVL growing by $74 million between August 11 and the time of writing.

Liquidation heatmap points to a possible pullback
The liquidation heatmap analysis shows there is potential for the price to witness a local swing based on the cluster level.

The liquidation cluster on the chart shows a dense concentration of liquidity at the higher part of the chart. This local level is around $0.45, with roughly $180,000 worth of orders at this level.

Source: CoinGlass
Clusters tend to act as magnets, pulling price toward them. In this case, with the cluster positioned above the price, it represents a sell cluster. When price trades into this zone, a pullback could occur.

For now, the setup shows a rally-to-retracement narrative. Notably, continued capital inflows, especially through on-chain flows, could strengthen accumulation, outweigh sell pressure at this level, and push ETHFI higher.

ETHFI buybacks remain at zero in Q3
One major concern over whether ETHFI can sustain its run is its buyback activity. Token buybacks allow teams to reduce the circulating supply of their tokens, which can affect price dynamics positively.

For Q3, there has been no token buyback, with $0 spent so far. This stands in sharp contrast to previous quarters, such as Q2 and Q1, when $30,000 and $3.28 million were spent, respectively.

Source: DeFiLlama

Ether.fi’s buyback program is designed to use part of protocol revenue to buy ETHFI.

For now, token holder data shows that buying activity remains in the market, with the number of token holders climbing to 131,940 on the chart. This implies that demand for the token remains present despite the lack of recent buyback spending.

With little incentive from buybacks, the analysis shows that holders in the market are more hinged on the protocol’s performance as a whole.

Final Summary

Rising fees and TVL point to growing activity on Ether.fi, while token holders have also climbed to 131,940.
ETHFI faces potential sell pressure near $0.45, with no buyback spending recorded in Q3 so far.

Ether.fi has upgraded its non-custodial neobank with tokenized stocks and metals, portfolio-backed loans near 4%, payments in over 30 currencies, and programmatic ETHFI buybacks.

Summary

Ether.fi users can trade tokenized assets and hold them inside self-custodial vaults. An Aave market on Optimism supports loans against portfolios at rates currently near 4%. Cash card users receive 3% cashback, while higher membership tiers remove certain foreign-exchange fees. Tokenized stock trading remains unavailable in the United States and some other markets. Ether.fi neobank combines trading, loans, and payments According to Ether.fi’s Thursday announcement, the “Summer” release places crypto trading, tokenized real-world assets, portfolio borrowing, and global payments inside one app designed as an alternative to a traditional bank account.

Through an integration with xStocks, eligible users can buy tokenized equities and commodities alongside their crypto holdings. The assets remain in self-custodial vaults rather than accounts controlled by a centralized exchange, while a social recovery feature gives users a way to restore access if they lose their usual credentials.

Ether.fi said the updated interface uses less crypto-focused language as the project seeks users who may want blockchain-based financial services without navigating several decentralized applications. Instead of moving assets between a wallet, lending protocol, trading platform, and payment provider, customers can access the functions through one app.

Borrowing is handled through a new Aave market running on Optimism. Users can provide assets from their portfolios as collateral and obtain loans at standard decentralized finance rates, which Ether.fi said were around 4% at the time of the announcement.

Borrowed funds can be transferred or spent through the Ether.fi Cash card, allowing customers to access money without first selling the assets held in their portfolios. Users can also spend supported assets directly or continue holding yield-bearing positions as collateral.

“With ether.fi, we’re bridging the gap between decentralized finance and everyday financial needs,” Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze said.

Silagadze added that the project wants to replace a conventional bank for many users by offering financial tools that have often been limited to institutions and wealthy clients. According to the chief executive, self-custody and decentralized finance make it possible to provide such services without requiring customers to hand over direct control of their assets to the platform.

Card benefits extend across more than 30 currencies Under the upgraded service, Ether.fi Cash cardholders will receive 3% cashback on purchases. The company has also removed top-up charges, while customers at higher membership levels can make payments without the foreign-exchange fees normally charged by the platform.

Ether.fi said the new deposit and withdrawal connections support more than 30 currencies and payment methods. Apple Pay and Cash App are included among the supported options, giving eligible customers additional ways to move between fiat money and assets held through the app.

Card availability still depends on a user’s country. Silagadze told The Block that people in places where Ether.fi cannot issue its payment card can use the platform’s staking products or fiat deposit and withdrawal connections instead.

The app builds on a card business that already serves about 500,000 users and has issued roughly 150,000 cards, according to figures Silagadze gave to the publication. Ether.fi previously moved the card from Scroll to Optimism, placing the payment product on the same Ethereum scaling network that now hosts its Aave lending market.

Alongside the customer-facing services, the Summer release introduces programmatic purchases of ETHFI, Ether.fi’s governance token. The announcement said the buybacks will be integrated into the app’s financial model, although it did not provide the purchase schedule, funding formula, or volume expected under the program.

Tokenized stocks remain restricted for U.S. users American customers will not have access to the tokenized stock trading feature at launch. Ether.fi said the service will also remain unavailable in certain other jurisdictions, while access to cards, fiat connections, and other products will depend on local rules.

The restriction is relevant because xStocks products track shares of publicly traded companies but do not necessarily give holders the same legal position as investors who buy stock through a regulated broker. The exact ownership rights, dividend treatment, collateral structure, and redemption terms depend on how each token is issued.

In July, crypto.news previously reported that tokenized equity ownership across five large platforms had climbed 92% in 30 days to 752,000 holders. Robinhood accounted for 328,000 holders, while xStocks ranked second by asset value at $487 million at the time.

Newer data shows competition in the sector has continued to rise. Binance’s bStocks reached $610.6 million and moved ahead of xStocks less than two months after launching, while Token Terminal data placed the tokenized stock market at approximately $2.7 billion.

U.S. access remains tied to an unresolved regulatory debate. In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission was reportedly considering an exemption that could permit some blockchain platforms to offer tokenized public shares in the country.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce later indicated that any such framework would probably cover digital versions of existing equities that preserve the rights attached to conventional shares. Synthetic products that only follow a company’s stock price without providing shareholder rights were not expected to qualify under the approach she described.

For American investors, Ether.fi’s geographic restriction means the new app does not yet create a direct route to tokenized equities. U.S. users must rely on whichever staking, payment, borrowing, or fiat services Ether.fi is legally able to offer in their location.

Ether.fi expands beyond its restaking roots Once centered mainly on Ethereum restaking, Ether.fi has spent 2026 adding payment products and other sources of on-chain income. The protocol lets users stake ETH and receive liquid assets such as eETH and weETH, which can then be used in decentralized finance without requiring holders to withdraw the underlying stake first.

Earlier in August, Ether.fi began removing its weETH restaking exposure from EigenLayer and moving toward Symbiotic infrastructure. Symbiotic permits a range of ERC-20 assets to serve as collateral and separates functions such as operator management, reward distribution, and penalty conditions into modules that individual services can configure.

Real-world assets have become another part of Ether.fi’s product set. In June, the protocol allocated $100 million to a Plume vault containing income strategies linked to institutional assets.

Plume said the vault included overcollateralized credit pools, highly rated collateralized loan obligations, and bond exchange-traded funds. Ether.fi ecosystem head Charles Mountain said the capital included managed funds from the protocol’s liquid ETH, liquid USD, and liquid BTC vaults, which held about $300 million in combined value at the time.

In a separate three-year agreement, Ether.fi committed $3 billion in ETH as validator liquidity to ETHGas, an Ethereum platform that operates markets linked to future blockspace. The protocol’s latest product update allows users to keep staked and yield-bearing assets as collateral while accessing loans, transfers, or card spending from the same portfolio.

In brief Ether.fi is adding tokenized assets and loans backed by multiple holdings. Fiat accounts will support more than 30 currencies and payment methods. Tokenized stocks and metals will not be available to U.S. users. Ether.fi, a decentralized finance platform known for Ethereum staking, is adding tokenized asset trading, portfolio-backed loans, and fiat accounts to its self-custodial app.

Announced on Thursday, Ether.fi said users can now trade tokenized stocks, metals, and crypto assets through its app. An integrated market using decentralized lending protocol Aave on Optimism, an Ethereum scaling network, also lets users lend assets, borrow against their portfolios without selling their holdings, and send or spend the proceeds. New fiat accounts support deposits and withdrawals worldwide.

Myriad: Ethereum next price move? Click the image to make your prediction.“Initially we're supporting existing assets and select tokenized stocks and gold,” Ether.fi founder and CEO Mike Silagadze told Decrypt. Those existing assets include Ethereum, Bitcoin, Hyperliqud, and ETHFI, Ether.fi's native governance token, said Silagadze. “Quickly we'll start adding additional assets as collateral.”

According to Ether.fi, fiat accounts will be available to users who have completed the identity checks required for its payment card. Deposit and withdrawal speeds will vary.

Ether.fi is also introducing automated buybacks of ETHFI and offering 3% cash back on card purchases. The company says it has more than 500,000 members and a $2 billion annual transaction run rate.

Silagadze said portfolio-backed loans and tokenized real-world assets, or RWAs, could attract people who do not already use decentralized finance.

“I think being able to borrow against the whole portfolio, and being able to loop RWAs is going to be popular,” he said. “Also getting cashback on trades and borrows is going to create some buzz, I think.”

The new features are available to new and existing Ether.fi users, although tokenized stock and metals trading is unavailable in the United States and certain other markets.

Silagadze said the expanded platform is intended to serve as an alternative to traditional banks.

“With ether.fi, we’re bridging the gap between decentralized finance and everyday financial needs,” Silagadze said. “Our goal is to replace the traditional bank for most users and give them tools and benefits that were previously available only to institutions and high-net-worth individuals. That is the power of DeFi and self-custody.”

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Mike Silagadze, CEO and co-founder of liquid restaking protocol ether.fi, has put his money where his governance opinions are. On August 7, 2026, Silagadze publicly offered a $1 million bet that EIP-8363, a draft Ethereum Improvement Proposal for tapered validator reward burning, will increase network concentration among validators if adopted.

What EIP-8363 actually does EIP-8363, titled “Tapered Issuance Burn,” was submitted on August 4, 2026. Its authors include Justin Drake, a prominent researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. The core mechanic is straightforward in concept: partially burn validator rewards at a rate that scales with the total amount of ETH staked across the network.

The burn formula scales as the effective staking balance divided by 60.25 million ETH, raised to the power of 1.5, and capped at 100%. In practical terms, as the amount of staked ETH approaches roughly 50% of the total supply (around 60.25 million ETH), performing validators would reach net zero issuance. Their rewards would be entirely burned.

Currently, about 41.5 million ETH is staked, representing roughly 34% of the total supply, with yields hovering around 2.67%. The proposal’s most aggressive effects would only kick in as staking climbs toward that 60.25 million ETH threshold.

Advertisement

Why Silagadze thinks it’s a centralization bomb Silagadze’s argument centers on a simple economic asymmetry. Solo stakers and smaller node operators have real capital costs. They buy ETH at market price, lock it up, and earn yield as compensation for that opportunity cost. When yields get compressed by a tapered burn, their incentive to participate erodes quickly.

Large custodians like Coinbase and Binance operate under entirely different economics. They hold massive pools of customer ETH that they can deploy for staking at effectively zero marginal cost of capital. Even with dramatically lower yields, staking remains profitable for them because their cost basis is fundamentally different. The result, in Silagadze’s view, is predictable: solo stakers exit, large custodians stay, and the validator set consolidates around a handful of centralized entities.

Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave, has also raised concerns about EIP-8363’s downstream effects. Kulechov’s critique focuses on DeFi collateral markets that depend on staking yields. Liquid staking tokens like stETH and eETH serve as collateral across lending protocols. Compress the yield those tokens generate, and you potentially undermine the economic foundation of a significant portion of DeFi.

The community response has been unusually decisive Polling conducted by the Ethereum Validators Association tells a stark story. A survey of validators found 99.77% of respondents opposing EIP-8363.

The proposal remains in draft form with no immediate plans for inclusion in any upcoming hard fork. Supporters of the proposal argue that unchecked staking growth creates its own centralization risks and security vulnerabilities, and that if too much ETH is locked in staking, it could reduce the liquidity available for economic activity on the network. The tapered burn, in this framing, acts as a pressure valve.

What’s at stake beyond the bet Ethereum’s staking ratio has been climbing steadily. At 34% of supply staked, the network is still well below the 50% threshold where EIP-8363’s burn mechanism would reach full force.

For DeFi protocols, liquid staking derivatives are deeply integrated into lending, borrowing, and leverage markets. Any material change to staking economics ripples through the entire composability stack. A protocol like Aave, which holds significant positions in staked ETH derivatives as collateral, has direct financial exposure to these policy decisions.

The $1 million bet remains open. Whether anyone takes the other side may say as much about the proposal’s prospects as the formal governance process itself.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Ether.fi [ETHFI] has stayed on the losing side of the market over the past 24 hours, dwindling further with a double-digit percentage loss.

The token ranks among the year’s most unfavorable assets to trade, stringing together multi-week losses. Over the last 90 days, it dropped 17%, and on a one-year basis, it sits down 65%.

The trend isn’t typical – the recent slide arrives alongside solid on-chain performance tied to capital flow, yet price remains structurally weak.

What’s driving ETHFI lower Derivatives have driven most of the decline through capital and positioning. The Funding Rate plummeted to one of its lowest points in the past day, hitting -0.0101%, a level last seen in April.

A negative Funding Rate normally means short positions dominate the perpetual Open Interest, the leveraged capital sitting in the asset. More than 50% of the $57.33 million in contract value now bets on capturing gains from a falling price.

Source: CoinGlass That target isn’t far off when set against the broader market numbers. CoinGlass liquidation data over the past 24 hours shows short traders lost 22 times less than longs.

Liquidations wiped out roughly $342,009 in long positions against $15,480 in shorts over the same window.

Whales are steering the decline Reading which group drives the move matters for gauging whether the downtrend sustains or reverses quickly.

The whale-retail delta, which tracks the split, puts whales in the driver’s seat. Whales are showing outflows, raising the odds ETHFI declines even longer, since this group tends to commit to a path until something forces a change.

Source: CoinGlass They’ve already dominated retail investors for most of the year, feeding the asset’s underwhelming performance.

Spot netflow points to heavier selling across multiple windows. Over the last 30 days, the netflow hit $2.2 million, and on shorter frames, the 7-day and 3-day readings reached roughly $205,000 and $271,000 at the time of writing.

ETHFI on-chain capital stays strong Capital keeps flowing strongly on the on-chain side of the market. Total value locked (TVL) records the capital deposited and locked in the protocol for long-term holding and gains.

DeFiLlama data reports $261 million worth of the asset flowed into the protocol from 20 July to date, lifting TVL to around $3.484 billion at the time of writing.

A surge like this often hints at long-term commitment, likely from retail and mid-sized investors. For now, whale presence could stand as a key hindrance to the long-term ETHFI rebound retail investors are setting up.

Final Summary Derivatives are steering the move, with a -0.0101% Funding Rate showing traders are positioned for further downside. The TVL climbing to $3.484 billion signals retail and mid-sized investors are still committing capital on-chain.

Ether.fi [ETHFI] has continued with its price recovery. After successfully holding $0.4 support, the altcoin jumped to a local high of $0.44, effectively clearing all recent losses.

At press time, Ether.fi was trading at around $0.43 after rising 11.34% on the daily charts. At the same time, trading volume surged 107%, while market cap climbed 10%, reflecting market participation and capital flows.

What’s behind Ether.fi’s rally? ETHFI’s relative strength was driven by an increased user base and expansion into RWA tokenization. Nearly two weeks ago, Ether.fi allocated $100 million into a new Plume RWA Vault, providing ETHFI users access to institutional-grade RWA yield. 

The product introduced RWA exposure to a simple, non-custodial on-chain vault. After Ether.fi announced the investment. ETHFI surged from $0.37 to $0.44. This was later boosted by the integration with the Binance wallet. A week ago, the Binance wallet added a Plume RWA yield vault on nBASIS. 

In doing so, ETHFI greatly benefited from the expanded market reach. The altcoin rose from $0.38 to $0.44 between July 8 and 12, before retracing. 

ETHFI market demand remains steady In addition to the growing reach of the RWA market, demand for the altcoin has remained steady across the market. 

On the derivatives side, the altcoin’s Open Interest (OI) climbed 19% to $74.47 million as of writing. At the same time, the Derivatives Volume surged 93% to $110 million. 

Source: CoinGlass With OI and volume rising in tandem, it showed increased speculative activity as traders opened new positions, either shorts or longs. The same demand was observed on the spot side. According to Coinglass data, the altcoin’s Spot Netflow has remained positive for two consecutive days. 

Notably, the Spot Netflow was -$82k, a significant drop from -$264k. With the Netflow holding negative, it indicated that buyers are relatively stronger on the spot. 

Source: CoinGlass These prevailing market conditions have historically preceded stronger price performance, especially when sustained.

Can ETHFI’s upside hold? Currently, Ether.fi’s upside momentum remains relatively strong, largely driven by established market demand. At the time of writing, the altcoin Momentum Shift Indicator remained positive and was stabilizing at 0.025.

Source: TradingView With this indicator on an upward trajectory, the prevailing trend is particularly strong. At the same time, the MACD has also remained on a rising trend for the past two weeks, further confirming the trend’s strength.

Taken together, these two indicators point towards the extension of the trend. Therefore, if demand holds, Ether.fi will close above $0.45 and eye $0.5. However, if the altcoin fails to hold $0.44, it will likely drop below $0.4, with $0.37 as the critical support.

Final Summary

Ether.fi surged 11%, successfully held $0.4, and jumped to $0.44 amid strong market demand. ETHFI has shown relative strength, as a $100 million investment into RWA seems to be finally paying off. 

Ether.fi [ETHFI] has posted a sharp decline as capital outflows across the broader market drive much of the fall.

The asset recorded a double-digit loss in the early hours of Tuesday, extending its price to a low of $0.384 on the chart. Outflows continue to dominate, yet the market is already flashing early signs of a possible recovery and leaves room for a rally to still stretch higher.

Capital exits ETHFI’s on-chain economy The steepest hurdle facing ETHFI’s price over the past day has been the on-chain capital exit.

Total value locked (TVL), which gauges the strength of on-chain capital through the deposits and withdrawals moving through the protocol, shows that roughly $54 million has left the market.

The metric slid from $3.212 billion to roughly $3.153 billion, signalling that retail holders are exiting the market, likely on concerns over rising volatility.

Source: DeFiLlama On a protocol level, the asset has held up decently, with earnings—the profit that remains once incentives are stripped out—reaching $1.34 million and already nearing half of the $2.79 million generated in June.

The pattern suggests the recent sell-off reflects a reaction to market sentiment and not a structural bearish trend. That sentiment traces back to the notable decline the crypto market absorbed over the past day, when it shed around $8.61 billion in total capitalization.

Perpetual contracts keep bears in play The clearest gap in the market emerges from ETHFI’s perpetual contracts, which show that bears still hold some strength after an 11% decline dragged open interest to $62.26 million.

That gap stems from an imbalance in liquidations, with market data revealing a wide disparity between long and short liquidations. Over the past 24 hours, long traders have lost roughly 40 times more than short traders.

The liquidation data shows short traders lost just $2,210 against $89,680 for long traders across the same period, and the uneven spread points to the strength of the bears.

Source: CoinGlass On lower timeframes, the liquidation disparity widens further, though the capital lost this time around remains minimal.

The liquidation heatmap offers no clear directional bias for the asset, instead showing fairly evenly distributed clusters.

These clusters mark areas on the chart where buy or sell orders sit, and clusters resting above the price usually act as sell zones that pull the price toward them and force selling, while clusters below reverse the dynamic and force buys once the price drops into them.

For now, there’s no decisive direction, leaving momentum to dictate the next price move.

Rising long volume hints at ETHFI accumulation While liquidations remain skewed in favour of the shorts, activity on the long-to-short ratio points to rising accumulation.

At the time of writing, the long-to-short volume ratio on the chart shows more long volume in the market, pushing up to 1.02. A continued climb would imply that buy interest still lingers in the market.

Source: CoinGlass Whether that offers a sufficient basis for a shift in direction remains unclear. The broader crypto market that shaped the sell-off sentiment has begun cooling, and a strong chance remains that ETHFI benefits from the turn and recovers, flipping momentum against the sellers.

 Final Summary Ether.fi’s token fell 10% after roughly $54 million left the protocol, moving in step with a broader crypto market that shed about $8.61 billion in a day. Buying activity is quietly picking up and a calming market could give ETHFI room to bounce back.

ETHFI Leads the Pack With a Sharp Weekly Gain@ether_fi's native governance token $ETHFI has emerged as one of the standout performers in the current crypto market cycle, posting a nearly 15% gain in 24 hours and extending its weekly advance to around 25%. According to CoinGecko, the token has risen approximately 24.9% over the past seven days, outpacing the broader cryptocurrency market, which is up roughly 5.6% over the same period, as well as the wider Ethereum ecosystem cohort, which has gained around 12.7%.

The move has brought $ETHFI within reach of reclaiming a $400 million market cap. CoinGecko data places the current market capitalisation at approximately $407 million, with a circulating supply of around 930 million tokens.

The catalyst behind the rally is not immediately obvious. No single announcement has been pinpointed, and the question of what is driving the surge remains open. That said, a number of notable protocol developments have taken place in recent weeks that may be contributing to renewed investor interest.

Protocol Activity Builds a Stronger Fundamental CaseIn early June, ether.fi and onchain vault manager Plume launched a new yield-bearing real-world asset vault. According to The Block, ether.fi allocated $100 million to the vault, drawing capital from its liquidity provider base, including funds, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals, as well as from its existing liquid vaults.

Separately, ether.fi entered a three-year, $3 billion agreement with ETHGas, committing roughly 40% of its staked ETH to support a new forward market for Ethereum blockspace. The partnership gives ether.fi exclusive access to ETHGas's preconfirmation platform, providing execution guarantees and predictable pricing for buyers such as rollups and institutional traders.

On the tokenomics side, the ether.fi DAO has an approved proposal to allocate up to $50 million from treasury funds for $ETHFI buybacks when the token trades below $3, funded by protocol revenue. Trading volume has also picked up sharply, with CoinGecko noting a 123.5% increase in 24-hour volume, a signal of elevated market activity rather than a quiet drift higher.

Ether.fi is a decentralised, non-custodial liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum. Users stake ETH and receive eETH, the first native liquid restaking token on the network, which can be deployed across DeFi to earn additional yield. The $ETHFI token is used for protocol governance.

Whether the current move has legs or is a short-term rerating remains to be seen, but the combination of strong protocol momentum and improving tokenomics gives traders more to work with than momentum alone.

Sources:
CoinGecko: Ether.fi (ETHFI) Price and Market Data
The Block: Ether.fi Allocates $100 Million to Plume RWA Vault

The SSV Network DAO and Ether.fi have joined forces to launch a new Learn & Earn campaign on the Galxe platform. Part of the reasons behind the collaboration is to educate community members about the advantages of Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) as well as the importance of decentralizing Ethereum’s base layer.

Through this partnership, participants can earn a share of a $50,000 ETHFI prize pool. 150 lucky winners will be randomly selected. Aside from this, all users will also have the chance to earn points as part of Ether.fi’s Season 3 incentive program.

The campaign is set to last for two weeks, aiming toward increasing engagement and activities while at the same time informing them about the role of DVT in powering the SSV network  Ether.fi’s restaking operations.

Members who partake in the Learn & Earn campaign will gain points for getting themselves accustomed to SSV’s role in helping decentralize Ether.fi’s non-custodial protocol.

Ether.fi’s Achievements in Staking and the Growth of the SSV Network Ether.fi has been able to record some achievements since it emerged. The liquid restaking company has over 6,500 validators running on the SSV Network, making it one of the leading adopters of this open-source staking technology. It has also gotten more than $4.5 billion in ETH staked, and its ETHFI token has grown to become a prominent DeFi token.

The SSV network has also been growing continuously since its mainnet launch in December. The project has seen many people use its technology, which has caused a spike in its Total Value Locked (TVL).

The network’s growth has seen it rank above Kraken to become the fifth-largest Ethereum staking provider, which could be linked to its new milestone of securing more than 1.3 million staked ETH. It is also supported by more than 900 operators running over 40,000 validator nodes.

SSV Network is a seamless staking system for developers to use. The network uses DVT technology, a new development designed mainly for distributing validation between multiple machines. Due to its flexibility, SSV lets node operators and validators join the network and participate in distributed staking without needing any permission.

As mentioned earlier, Ether.fi is a developer of liquid restaking technology on Ethereum. This solution makes it simpler for people to stake their Ethereum without giving up control of their coins. Through this initiative, Ether.fi helps make the Ethereum network more decentralized while making it easier for Ethereum holders to participate and earn rewards.

Distributed Validator Technology is now a key part of the billion-dollar staking industry. It plays an important role in keeping Ethereum’s validator layer secure. The Learn & Earn campaign, created by SSV Network and Ether.fi, will help people understand DVT and decentralized restaking. It will also reward users for participating.

Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

Cryptocurrency News, Ethereum News, News

Temitope is a writer with more than four years of experience writing across various niches. He has a special interest in the fintech and blockchain spaces and enjoy writing articles in those areas. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in linguistics. When not writing, he trades forex and plays video games. 

Temitope Olatunji on X

Reason to trust

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Created by industry experts and meticulously reviewed

The highest standards in reporting and publishing

Strict editorial policy that focuses on accuracy, relevance, and impartiality

Morbi pretium leo et nisl aliquam mollis. Quisque arcu lorem, ultricies quis pellentesque nec, ullamcorper eu odio.

With the new year just one day away, crypto analyst Alex Wacy (@wacy_time1) shared an overview of what he calls the best altcoins heading into 2025. The analyst, who has amassed an audience of over 190,000 followers on X, highlighted several projects that he believes have the potential to dominate in the potential coming altseason.

Best Altcoins In 2025 He begins with Render (RNDR), describing it as a decentralized GPU rendering platform for AI, metaverse, and creative content. He maintained that “Render is poised to become a key player in the virtual future,” pointing to its $3.66 billion market capitalization as evidence of investor confidence.

Following closely is Virtual, an AI-driven avatar initiative that is pegged at $3.41 billion in market cap, with Wacy touting Virtual as “the growth leader in 2024 in the virtual avatar sector” and predicting increasing adoption for metaverse, gaming, and social media applications.

Wacy also turns his attention to SEKOIA, mentioning its focus on identifying and mentoring emerging AI talent. Although smaller in scale at a $94 million market cap, this autonomous AI investment agent uses advanced pattern recognition and quantifiable predictions to gain a foothold in a competitive space.

Next in line for the best altcoins in 2025 is Pengu, which he calls “the official coin of Paddy Penguin, a major force  in crypto.” Its substantial community and cultural traction reflect a hefty $2.28 billion market valuation, and its omnipresence in ETF ads combined with over 90 billion visits appear to confirm its cult-like following.

The list of best altcoins continues with Clearpool (CPOOL), a Decentralized Capital Markets Ecosystem valued at $341 million that provides insured loans to institutional borrowers in the DeFi arena through a dynamic interest model. The analyst noted that Clearpool’s approach to decentralized lending could offer a unique avenue for strategic investors.

He also spotlights Bittensor (Tao), a project intent on decentralizing AI solutions through an open ecosystem, weighed at $3.48 billion, and Hyperliquid (HYPE), a decentralized perpetuals exchange living on its own L1 with a $9.23 market cap. He describes Hype’s vision as “a high-speed, low-cost, transparent solution for perpetual futures,” though he advises caution, remarking that prospective investors should “research to understand its risks and potential.”

Io.net, which sits at $397 million, is categorized as a decentralized GPU network that reduces costs for AI developers, while CFG (Centric) aims to bridge DeFi with real-world assets. This $162 million project focuses on stable returns generated from real fiat value rather than solely leveraging volatile crypto.

Akash Network (AKT), valued at $746 million, is labeled by Wacy a “supercloud” that transforms cloud computing through a decentralized marketplace, and Ethena (ENA), at $2.69 billion, provides a synthetic dollar protocol on Ethereum, touted as “a crypto-native, bank-free solution for money.”

Wacy’s list also featured Helium (HNT) with a $1.13 billion market cap, identified for its decentralized IoT network, and Griffain in the Solana ecosystem, with a $211 million market cap, delivering scalable DeFi solutions for token swaps while upholding transparency.

The analyst also highlights Grasso (GRASS) in his list of the best altcoins for 2025 and its $683 million market cap, describing its decentralized data collection network for AI training as both functional and user-friendly. VitaDAO (VITA) is in Wacy’s focus because of its community-governed DAO funding longevity research. Its compact $54 million market cap appears poised for growth as members actively engage in decision-making and ownership, signifying a communal approach to biotech research in crypto.

Spectral, carrying a $194 million market cap, offers on-chain agents for easier application creation and includes a syntax tool that transforms natural language into Solidity. ETIGEN, or Energy Layer, at $170 million, extends novel concepts of restorative energy on Ethereum, and ONDO, with an impressive $2.83 billion market cap, aims to open up institutional-grade DeFi services and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

Wacy further singles out AIXTB, at $377M, which monitors crypto-related discussions via a proprietary engine to uncover high-sentiment opportunities, and Ether.fi (ETHFI), priced at $446M, which supports non-custodial ETH staking and DeFi integration. Throughout his breakdown, he underscored the cyclical nature of the crypto market, stating that these best altcoins “could see significant growth in 2025” once capital flow rotates away from Bitcoin and into high-potential altcoin narratives.

His overall thesis hinges on what he perceives as a predictable pattern in every major market cycle. “Altcoins typically pumping when BTC Dominance starts a strong downtrend,” the analyst wrote. He cited the example from 2021, when Bitcoin’s dominance fell from around 73% to 40%, triggering a monumental rally for altcoins like SOL, ADA, and DOGE.

Pointing out that current BTC dominance is about 55%, which he calls a “significant resistance zone,” he predicts a swift drop to 40% if a breakdown occurs. “As I mentioned before, my bet for the altseason is in the spring of 2025,” he said, while admitting that he also shares the common sentiment of disbelief that surrounds every cycle. “That’s okay, it means the market is doing a good job of ‘smoking people out.’ Patience friends, patience always pays off,” he concluded.

At press time, the Bitcoin dominance (BTC.D) stood at 58.02%.

Bitcoin dominance, 1-week chart | Source: BTC.D on TradingView.com Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

ETH Wallets Holding $164 Million Back Danny Ryan for Ethereum Foundation Leader

Analyst Recommends Altcoins: Why These 3 Tokens Should Be On Your Watchlist

Upbit Adds Support for Ether.fi (ETHFI) KRW Trading Pair

ETHFI Price Today: Upbit KRW Listing Causes 20% Spike as Arthur Hayes Accumulates

Ether.fi drops after 3.6M ETHFI whale dump – Will $0.40 support break?

Ether.fi commits to injecting 3 billion USD worth of ETH into ETHGas over three years as "Validator Liquidity".

Ether.fi to Deploy $3B in ETH to ETHGas Validator Marketplace

OP: Ether.fi is Live on OP Mainnet

Aave Weighs 25,000 ETH Contribution to DeFi United as Kelp Exploit Fallout Widens

THE BLOCK: Ether.fi allocates $100 million to a Plume RWA vault, giving users access to yield