EtherFi Unveils Plans For Credit Card Tied To Restaking Holdings

EtherFi, the leading Ethereum restaking protocol, has announced plans to launch a credit card linked to users’ restaked ETH holdings.

Announced on May 23, the EtherFi Cash will comprise a Visa credit card integrated with a mobile wallet. Payments are executed either by swapping a portion of users’ holdings into USDC, or by borrowing a sum of USDC against their EtherFi portfolio. Interest accrued can also be paid down using the rewards earned from users’ eETH holdings.

Reliance on TradFi payment rails is still a major censorship risk and a usability nightmare,” EtherFi said. “Cash is the third in our Trilogy of products — ether.fi Stake, ether.fi Liquid, and ether.fi Cash. Combined, these integrated products help users save, invest, and spend their crypto, making it so that users never have to off-ramp again.”

EtherFi added that the card can be used “anywhere in the world.”

EtherFi’s rise

The news comes as EtherFi is cementing its position as a top DeFi protocol.

EtherFi currently ranks seventh by total value locked with a TVL of $5.66 billion after growing nearly 50% in the past 30 days, with the growth buoyed by ETH rallying more than 27% in the past week amid renewed spot Ether ETF bullishness.

EtherFi kicked off the recent liquid restaking token (LRT) boom. The protocol eliminates the technical barriers to users participating in native restaking via EigenLayer, while also enabling them to remain liquid. Restaking allows users to earn additional yields by delegating their staked Ether to secure third-party protocol while simultaneously securing the Ethereum blockchain.

LRT protocols now boast a combined TVL of $14B, according to DeFi Llama. Renzo is the second-largest LRT project with $3.93 billion, followed by Puffer Finance with $1.79 billion.

Mike Silagadze, the founder of EtherFi, described the launch of Cash as a critical component of the project’s mission to remove the technical friction associated with on-chain finance and open the door to mainstream adoption.

“Over time, protocols are going to provide a suite of integrated products and abstract away the complexities of DeFi including chains, derivatives, and strategies,” Silagadze said. “They are going to resemble consumer products that focus on bringing value to the user.”