
History, technology and key data — no opinions, no advice
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Ether.fi was born in 2022 at the hands of Mike Silagadze and Rok Kopp with a differentiating proposition in the Ethereum staking ecosystem: creating a non-custodial protocol where users retain control of their validator keys, unlike alternatives such as Lido or Rocket Pool. The project received backing from ConsenSys from its beginnings.
On 3rd May 2023, Ether.fi launched its mainnet with delegated ETH staking to whitelisted validators, maintaining the key characteristic that users retained control of withdrawal keys. In June 2023, the protocol opened to non-whitelisted users and launched the Ether.Fan NFT collection, comprised of 10,000 NFTs representing staking positions.
During August 2023, Ether.fi established an alliance with Obol Labs to launch the first validator using Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), a technology that distributes validator keys amongst multiple operators to reduce risks. In October of the same year, the protocol's smart contracts became open source.
15th November 2023 marked a milestone with the complete launch of eETH, Ether.fi's liquid staking token. Users could mint or redeem eETH for ETH at a 1:1 ratio through the application. Integration with EigenLayer transformed eETH into a liquid restaking token (LRT), adding restaking yield to base staking yield. This innovation drove the protocol's TVL with 3,600% growth during 2024.
On 18th March 2024, the ETHFI governance token launched on Binance as launchpool number 49, with a maximum supply of 1,000 million ETHFI and 11.52% in initial circulation. The Season 1 airdrop distributed tokens to eligible wallets, reaching an initial capitalisation of approximately 500 million dollars. During 2024, the platform expanded its services with the launch of "Cash", a crypto credit card backed by staked ETH that achieved more than 70,000 active cards and approximately 160 million dollars in TVL.
In April 2025, Ether.fi launched DeFiBank, a non-custodial decentralised banking platform that integrates staking, Cash and automated yield strategies. By 2025, the protocol had surpassed 8,000 million dollars in assets managed under its total TVL.
Ether.fi functions as a non-custodial liquid restaking protocol that allows users to stake their ETH whilst maintaining control of their validator keys. When a user deposits ETH, the protocol groups it into batches of 32 ETH to create Ethereum validators, but the validator keys are generated on the user side, encrypted and shared securely with node operators. Only the original user can execute the validator exit, which differentiates Ether.fi from competitors such as Lido. The deposited ETH is automatically restaked on EigenLayer, and in return the user receives eETH, a rebasing ERC-20 token that accumulates rewards from both traditional staking and restaking.
Each validator on the network is represented by two distinct NFTs: the T-NFT represents 30 ETH of the economic stake and is transferable, whilst the B-NFT represents the remaining 2 ETH along with operational control and the validator keys, being non-transferable. For greater security, the protocol utilises Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), which distributes the keys amongst multiple operators to eliminate single points of failure. The eETH token can be wrapped as weETH, a non-rebasing version compatible with DeFi protocols such as Aave, Morpho, Curve and Balancer, expanding the possibilities for capital utilisation.
ETHFI acts as the protocol's governance token and fulfils an additional function as collateral for node operators, protecting them against potential slashing penalties. This structure allows Ether.fi to combine the liquidity of traditional staking with restaking opportunities, maintaining a non-custodial model where users retain fundamental control over their validator assets.
Data verified against external sources. Some values may have changed since the last update.
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