Ether.fi’s Cash product reached $100.3 million in monthly spending volume in July, up 85% from $54.3 million in January, while a pending ETHFI buyback proposal has become a central variable in how the market is framing the token.
Ether.fi’s account model
According to the translated analysis republished by WuBlockchain, Ether.fi wants users to manage funds inside a self-custodial account. In May 2024, the project outlined a product vision that combined staking, liquidity and cash functions. That account now brings together four functions:
- Savings and earning, with assets held in self-custodial vaults and deployed into staking and investment strategies.
- Spending and transfers through Cash, using both fiat and crypto rails.
- Trading in cryptocurrencies, tokenized stocks and metals, subject to local availability.
- Borrowing through a dedicated Aave market against eligible collateral.
Ether.fi also offers business accounts for corporate treasuries and employee cards. Its user interface combines services built partly on partner infrastructure, including Aave lending and card payment rails. The report said that vertical integration, and the way each piece feeds into the others, is where the company’s strategic edge comes from.
In that setup, yield-bearing assets can support collateralized borrowing, and borrowed funds can be used for Cash spending without forcing users to sell their holdings. That creates fee revenue and reduces the need to move assets to outside providers. Membership perks also encourage customers to stake ETHFI, tying token utility to more than one business line.
Cash spending almost doubled from January to July
Paymentscan data cited in the report shows monthly Cash spending rose from $54.3 million in January to $100.3 million in July, an 85% increase. Monthly active addresses climbed 83%, from 21,898 to 40,040.
Spending per address barely moved, edging from about $2,479 to $2,505. Monthly transactions per address fell 22%, while average ticket size increased 29%. The report said the bigger active user base explains most of the increase in spending.
Over the same stretch, the broader tracked market expanded 81%. Cash’s share changed from 9.5% to 9.7%, a 2% relative increase, which the report described as roughly keeping pace with the category’s growth. Paymentscan said its coverage includes self-reported offchain data, and the sample excludes part of the card market.
The analysis also placed Ether.fi alongside products already mixing adjacent services. Nexo combines borrowing and spending. KAST combines cards, accounts and yield. Gnosis Pay supports self-custodial spending. RedotPay leads current Paymentscan transaction volume rankings. The report said the opening lies in cross-service convenience, with repeat use and contribution profit after rewards determining how durable that edge will be.
Where the fees come from
Cash monetizes spending through card fees. A DefiLlama adapter estimated revenue at 1.38% of spending volume, implying $13.8 million in pre-cost revenue for every $1 billion in annual transaction volume.
Other lines add different fee streams. Earn collects staking and vault fees. Trading contributes trading fees. Borrowing earns a share of the fees retained by the lending market.
An Aave proposal dated July 14 disclosed that ether.fi receives 80% of instance protocol fees and Aave receives 20%. The split excludes loan principal and interest paid to lenders, while Ether.fi remains responsible for operating costs and risk management.
Using DefiLlama figures across four business lines, the report said rolling 30-day annualized revenue reached $38.5 million as of Aug. 30, with $17.6 million of that coming from Cash. Cash’s annualized run rate has nearly doubled since Jan. 1, while tracked total revenue fell 22% because staking weakened and ETH fell in price.
That changed the revenue mix. Cash accounted for 17% of monthly revenue in January and 46% in July, taking a much larger share of a smaller total revenue base.
What was added on Aug. 13
The summer release on Aug. 13 introduced trading in tokenized stocks and metals, along with an integrated Aave market. The redesigned app also added more than 30 currencies and payment methods. Those features were rolled out to both new and existing users that day.
Management said in that release that the platform had more than 500,000 members and an annualized transaction run rate of $2 billion.
How the proposed ETHFI purchases would work
The ETHFI Foundation published its proposal on Aug. 30, with voting scheduled to end on Sept. 3. If approved, contributions from card, swap and staking revenue would fund weekly ETHFI purchases through CoW Swap.
Under the proposed flow, Labs would first collect fiat card fees and convert them into USDC, then move the contribution onchain. Using July as the example month, the foundation estimated about $1.33 million per month, or roughly $16 million annualized. The report stressed that the plan still requires approval, has not yet been executed and does not deduct reward distributions.
One example in the proposal uses a $10,000 swap charged at 0.5%, generating a $50 fee. Labs would keep $20. The remaining $30 would go to ETHFI purchases, split into $15 retained in the foundation treasury and $15 allocated as user rewards.
The proposal also authorizes the use of up to 20 million treasury ETHFI to cover reward shortfalls. The foundation would be able to adjust rewards and fee splits, or change the purchase cadence.
Using the same framework, a 25% contraction in contributions would lower annualized funding capacity to $12 million. A 50% increase would raise it to $24 million. At a token price of $0.55, $16 million would buy about 29 million ETHFI. If the token trades higher, the same pool buys fewer tokens.
Cash growth diverged from ETHFI price performance
The report said Cash revenue and ETHFI price have diverged this year. ETHFI rebounded 45% between Aug. 13 and Aug. 30 to reach $0.55, but was still down 21% from Jan. 1. The token has moved back above its 30-day and 90-day moving averages, yet the August rebound still left it below its starting point for the year.
Based on a fixed maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, that $0.55 price implies a reference valuation of $545 million. The report put that at 14.2x tracked annualized revenue and 3.6x gross fees. It also noted that gross fees include staking rewards and card cashback, which do not accrue to ETHFI holders.
On the proposal’s example figures, the implied $16 million annual funding capacity equals 2.9% of that reference valuation before reward distributions. If contributions grow 50% and price stays unchanged, that ratio rises to 4.4%.
The report added that these ratios measure total funding capacity, not equity claims on Labs, because ETHFI holders do not have equity rights in the company. It also ran a simple valuation check: at a 10x revenue multiple, sustaining a $545 million valuation would require $54.5 million in annual revenue, 42% above the current run rate.
Sept. 3 vote and quorum gap
The vote ends on Sept. 3 and requires 1 million ETHFI for quorum. As of Aug. 31, voting participation stood at about 245,800 ETHFI, or roughly 25% of the threshold.
The report also noted that borrowing has joined the funding pool at a $50 million scale, while the proposal uses $26 million.