ether.fi has stripped all EigenLayer restaking exposure out of weETH, turning its flagship token into a plain liquid staking asset and pushing restaking into a new token, weETHs, built on Symbiotic. The move unwinds the model that once made ether.fi the largest business built on EigenLayer's restaking pitch, and the protocol's own documentation shows restaked assets already down to less than 1%.
ether.fi removed all restaking exposure from weETH on Thursday. Restaking now lives only in weETHs, and holders who still want that exposure must opt into the second token.
ether.fi Splits Staking From Restaking
The change ends the arrangement that made ether.fi the largest business built on EigenLayer's restaking model. ether.fi bundled Ethereum staking yield with EigenLayer restaking exposure inside a single token and grew fast on that pitch through 2024. Its staking arm now holds $3.3 billion, according to DefiLlama, making it the largest liquid restaking protocol and third-largest across liquid staking and restaking behind Lido and Binance staked ETH.
That is down from a peak of $12.43 billion in August 2025. weETHs, the token ether.fi now points restakers toward, has a supply of 9,136 tokens worth roughly $18 million — about half a percent of the protocol's staking base.
CEO Calls It the End of an Era
ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze quote-tweeted the announcement: "End of an era. Sad." He added that he still thinks restaking will come back in one form or another, but that it was just a bit too early.
In a follow-up, ether.fi said current holders now have a clearer choice between basic staking exposure and additional restaking exposure depending on their goals, and that for new users the split simply makes the stack easier to understand. Neither Eigen Labs nor Symbiotic had publicly commented at press time.
Restaking Already Down to Less Than 1%
The onchain wind-down happened before Thursday's announcement. ether.fi's own slashing risk documentation states that as of August 2026, less than 1% of its assets remain restaked with EigenLayer, down from about half in early 2026.
Per that documentation, the remaining restaked share is set to reach zero in the third quarter of 2026, with ether.fi planning to remove EigenPod withdrawal credentials from its validators by Q4 2026, eliminating its last structural link to EigenLayer. ether.fi has not published a blog post explaining the decision, and its governance forum's most recent thread dates to November 2025.
Sector-Wide Retreat
Beyond ether.fi, the pullback extends across the sector. EigenCloud, the platform EigenLayer now sits inside, holds $5.10 billion, down from a peak of $22.06 billion on Aug. 14, 2025, DefiLlama data shows. Symbiotic holds $342.8 million against a December 2024 peak of $2.70 billion, while ether trades at $1,906.
Liquid restaking has been contracting since December 2024, when sector-wide deposits topped out at $18.3 billion and then slid as points and airdrop incentives dried up. ether.fi's own token, ETHFI, trades at $0.36, down 3.2% over 24 hours and 11.4% over the past week, for a market capitalization of $346 million — well off its March 2024 high of $8.53. EIGEN trades at $0.18, down 3.2% on the day and 20.8% over 30 days, against a December 2024 high of $5.65.
Source: The Defiant
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