Neobanks Will Drive Ethereum's Growth in 2026, Says ether.fi CEO

When Ethereum Becomes Your Bank: The Neobank Thesis for 2026

Bitcoin flirts with $91,000 while Ethereum's institutional story quietly shifts from speculation to something far more mundane—everyday banking. That shift matters more than the price action.

Ethereum spent 2025 doing something unexpected: it became respectable. Digital asset treasuries (DATs) deployed capital into ether.fi's restaking products, pushing ether from $1,472 in April to $4,832 at the trend's peak. The narrative wasn't "crypto will moon"—it was "we need yield, custody, and compliance in one place." That's institutional adoption wearing a boring suit, and it's the real story (CoinDesk, Jan. 2026).

The neobank thesis, articulated by ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze, inverts the industry's traditional playbook. Rather than chasing speculative fervor or gambling-adjacent applications, the next wave of growth comes from financial products that feel familiar to users who've never owned crypto. Stablecoins embedded in banking rails. Tokenized stocks. Yield without friction. This mirrors how the internet itself scaled—not through novelty, but through solving problems people already had. The difference: this time, the infrastructure is onchain.

Here's the irony: crypto's biggest institutional win may not be Bitcoin ETFs or Ethereum staking vehicles, but rather the boring infrastructure that lets a hedge fund or corporation treat Ethereum like a treasury account. DATs moved faster than traditional ETFs precisely because they offered something simpler—direct onchain access without regulatory scaffolding (N). The market rewarded that pragmatism with a 228% rally in ether.

Looking at 2026, the question isn't whether Ethereum scales or whether crypto "wins." It's whether neobanks can deliver the user experience that makes onchain finance feel inevitable rather than novel. Solana stress-tested its network under real demand in 2025; Ethereum consolidated institutional tooling. Both are positioning for deeper financial use cases. The winner won't be the flashiest blockchain—it'll be the one that makes users forget they're using blockchain at all.

What matters:

• DATs outpaced ETFs in 2025, signaling institutional preference for direct onchain access over wrapped products.
• Neobanks represent the clearest path to sustained adoption, embedding yield and self-custody into familiar banking interfaces.
• Real-world use cases (tokenized assets, treasury management) now compete with speculation for developer and capital attention.

The next bull market may not feel like one. It'll feel like banking.

For information. This does not constitute an investment recommendation.