Restaking Protocol Ether.fi Selects Scroll as Layer-2 Network for Settlement

• Ether.fi is rolling out a credit card using Scroll's zero-knowledge technology for settlement.
• The restaking firm will also move into lending and borrowing markets.
• TVL has increased on Ether.fi over the past month despite outflows across the sector.

Ether.fi said it selected the Scroll blockchain as a settlement layer, allowing the restaking protocol to start operating its planned credit card and introduce a market for lending and borrowing.

Scroll is a layer-2 blockchain that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. Its mainnet started operating in October and has secured $676 million in total value locked (TVL), up from $556 million since Aug. 5, data from DefiLlama shows.

Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze told CoinDesk he believes the card, named ether.fi Cash, will bring "billions in TVL" to Scroll and make it the leading layer-2 network. The deal means cardholders will be able to use crypto as collateral and borrow against it for purchases before automatically paying the balance with native yields.

Transactions on the card will be "gasless" – meaning there will be no fee to pay – due to Scroll's zk-rollup technology, which drastically reduces costs when sending or staking assets. Data from Scrollscan shows that average gas fees are around 0.09 gwei ($0.005) compared with Ethereum's average of 32.8 gwei.

Ether.fi is one of the largest restaking protocols. It has $5.7 billion in TVL, an increase of 12% over the past month, which contrasts with the wider restaking sector. EigenLayer's TVL has dropped by $5 billion since July 30.

Restaking protocols are designed to give investors additional yield on top of the native yield native ether ETH$3,035.57 staking provides. The entire market is worth around $24 billion.