Powering Liquid Restaking at Scale: Ether.fi's Rise and Implications for Institutions

Ether.fi is the fastest-growing liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum, already holding over $7 billion in TVL and operating one of the largest validator fleets among DeFi protocols. By allowing deposits of ETH that are automatically restaked through EigenLayer and wrapped as tradable eETH/weETH tokens, Ether.fi unlocks a triple-yield stack (staking + restaking + DeFi). Institutions — especially exchanges and qualified custodians — can now tap those yields while preserving liquidity, capital efficiency and full on-chain transparency.

Yet scale like this needs reliable, enterprise-grade validator infrastructure. That’s where InfStones comes in. With validator nodes across 80+ blockchains, SOC2 Type II attestation, and a tier-one client roster that includes Binance, OKX and BitGo, InfStones is a critical operator on Ether.fi and the perfect partner to keep its validator layer secure and compliant for institutions.

What is Ether.fi?

Ether.fi launched on mainnet in May 2023 as the first non-custodial liquid restaking protocol. It issues eETH (rebasing ERC-20) and weETH (wrapped, non-rebasing) against deposits. Ether.fi’s core offerings include:

• “Stake”: Front-end staking that mints eETH/weETH in one transaction
• “Liquid”: Auto-compounding vaults with automated strategies that deploy eETH into Pendle, Balancer, and others
• “Cash”: Payment layer that lets users spend yield-bearing assets directly

Technology Architecture

• Validators run in Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) clusters powered by Obol Labs, adding fault-tolerance and geographic diversity.
• Smart contracts are open-source and battle-tested by multiple audits, reducing counter-party risk for institutions.
• Users retain withdrawal keys, delegating only block-signing rights — an important security point for institutions that must avoid commingling.

Yield Stack

How Did Ether.fi Become the Dominant Liquid Restaking Player?

Ether.fi benefited from being one of the first movers in the liquid restaking space, running a lucrative points farm that rewarded early users with token airdrops. Benefiting from the rise of DeFi and restaking, the platform witnessed huge institutional inflows from exchanges routing client stakes into eETH for liquidity while meeting custody mandates.TVL grew from under $500 million in Q3 2023 to over $7.5 billion by July 2025, an increase of 14x in under two years, according to DefiLlama. Current validator count exceeds 70,000.

Why Does Liquid Staking Matter to Institutions?

• Capital efficiency: Unlike native staking, liquid staking tokens (LSTs) remain usable as collateral or liquidity. This is a huge advantage for trading desks and treasury managers, who can hedge, lend or settle trades without exiting the staking position.
• Yield enhancement: Restaking on EigenLayer means ETH can simultaneously secure Ethereum consensus and multiple Actively Validated Services (AVSs) for additional yield, making such institutional services highly attractive to users.
• Demand surge: Liquid staking is now the fastest-growing DeFi vertical as users search for yield. Ether.fi alone crossed $7 billion TVL in July 2025, ranking top 5 among all Ethereum protocols, according to DefiLlama.
• Diversified Counter-party Risk: DVT lowers single-operator failure risk. Multiple liquidity venues (Curve, Balancer, major CEXs) keep exit spreads tight even during stress.
• Regulatory clarity: Staking rewards are increasingly accepted as passive income rather than lending interest, easing adoption by regulated custodians.

Where Does InfStones Fit in?

Ether.fi’s meteoric rise translates into a constantly expanding validator fleet — tens of thousands of keys that must sign blocks 24/7 without a single missed duty or slash. The protocol’s own roadmap calls for onboarding thousands of additional validators each quarter to meet institutional demand. Running that scale in production requires:

• Multi-cloud redundancy to eliminate correlated downtime.
• Real-time telemetry for SOC2 and ISO-compliant reporting.
• Immaculate track record that satisfies risk committees.

InfStones, already an important operator on Ether.fi, is the ideal partner to meet these challenges:

• Massive Scale with Proven Uptime. InfStones operates 20,000+ validator nodes across 80+ blockchains with industry-leading SLAs.
• Trusted by Market Leaders. Binance selected InfStones to power its Ethereum 2.0 staking service, citing reliability and rapid batch deployment.
• Multi-Cloud Architecture. Validators run on Oracle Cloud and AWS data centers worldwide, insulating clients from single-provider outages.
• DVT & Restaking Expertise. InfStones engineers have deep DVT and SSV expertise, positioning the firm to manage Ether.fi’s DVT clusters end-to-end.
• Security Commitment. InfStones has been SOC2 Type II attested by auditors, exemplifying the highest security and compliance standards in the industry.
• Enterprise Tooling. The DevSuite dashboard exposes granular reward, performance and compliance metrics — essential for exchange ops teams and auditors.

To explore an integration, contact our institutional team at [email protected] and discover how quickly your organization can supercharge dormant ETH into liquid, restaked assets with enhanced yields.