[Opinion: The 'Gold Rush' of Restaking Fades, Leading Protocols on Ethereum See Significant Profit Decline] BlockBeats News, September 29 – As restaking yields continue to decline and smart contract risks rise, Ethereum's leading liquid restaking protocol, ether.fi, is gradually exiting the restaking business and shifting toward a 'crypto neobank' model. Data shows that as of September 8, the restaking sector managed approximately $10.02 billion in assets, generating only about $99,977 in fees over the past week. In comparison, liquid staking managed approximately $51.87 billion in assets, generating around $27.35 million in fees. On a per-dollar basis, fees generated by regular staking were about 53 times higher than those from restaking. ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze stated that restaking no longer offers 'meaningful yield opportunities,' while users face additional risks, prompting the company to exit the space. As of August, less than 1% of ether.fi's assets were still being restaked through EigenLayer, and the company expects to completely sever these structural connections by the end of this year. Meanwhile, five major liquid restaking protocols—Renzo, Kelp, Swell, Puffer Finance, and Bedrock—collectively achieved approximately $953,000 in gross profit in Q2 2026, a significant decline from $2.18 million in the previous three quarters. ether.fi has since shifted its business focus to crypto neobank services, including crypto payment cards, lending markets, yield vaults, and tokenized products such as stocks and metals. [Original Article Link]