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Ether.fi Moves Crypto Card Product to OP Mainnet From Scroll

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Ether.fi Moves Crypto Card Product to OP Mainnet From Scroll

Ether.fi is migrating its payments rail, Ether.fi Cash, to OP Mainnet, moving roughly 70,000 active cards and 300,000 accounts away from the Scroll Layer 2 network, according to a recent blog post.

The transition, announced Wednesday, involves shifting millions in Total Value Locked (TVL) over the coming months to integrate with Optimism’s broader Superchain ecosystem.

This strategic pivot underscores the fierce competition among Layer 2 solutions for high-volume consumer applications, with Ether.fi citing access to a larger DeFi ecosystem as a primary driver.

Key Takeaways

  • Mass Migration: Approximately 70,000 active cards and 300,000 accounts are moving to Optimism.
  • Volume Impact: Ether.fi Cash processes roughly $2 million in daily spend volume.
  • Incentives: Gas fees for card transactions will be fully absorbed by Ether.fi during and after the transition.

Why Is Network Choice Critical?

Ether.fi initially built its reputation on asset restaking but successfully pivoted to consumer payments with Ether.fi Cash in 2024.

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The product allows users to spend stablecoins or borrow against staked assets like eETH to fund real-world Visa purchases.

According to Paymentscan, these cards now facilitate nearly half of all crypto-native card transactions.

Ether.fi Moves Crypto Card Product to OP Mainnet From Scroll
Source: Paymentscan

The choice of underlying network defines transaction speed and liquidity depth.

Operational stability is paramount for consumer products; just look at what happened to what happened to Moonwell this week.

Payment providers must mitigate infrastructure risks by selecting mature execution layers. Ether.fi’s move signals that liquidity depth on OP Mainnet currently outweighs the ZK-rollup advantages offered by Scroll for this specific use case.

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Breaking Down the Migration

The migration utilizes an OP Enterprise partnership, providing Ether.fi with dedicated support and shared codebase tooling.

Transaction costs for card usage will be absorbed by the protocol, ensuring users experience no friction during the switch. This is critical as Ether.fi Cash currently processes roughly 2,000 internal swaps and 28,000 spend transactions daily, metrics that have reportedly doubled every two months.

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Capital efficiency is the core technical driver here. Much like how new frameworks are introducing unified liquidity and staking solutions, Ether.fi expects deeper liquidity for swaps on OP Mainnet compared to its previous deployment.

Optimized liquidity pools mean lower slippage for users converting crypto to fiat at the point of sale.

The OP Stack itself processed a staggering 3.6 billion transactions in the second half of 2025, representing 13% of all crypto transactions in that period.

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What Does This Mean for the L2 Landscape?

For Scroll, this represents a notable loss of volume. The ZK-powered chain had relied on Ether.fi as a significant driver of daily activity.

Conversely, Optimism reinforces its position as a dominant hub, securing a high-retention consumer product just as internal ecosystem dynamics shift, notably with Base signaling moves toward a bespoke chain platform.

This consolidation reflects a maturing Ethereum ecosystem where projects prioritize battle-tested liquidity over novel tech stacks.

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It aligns with broader institutional positioning, similar to how funds like Founders Fund have adjusted their ETH-related exposure to align with prevailing market realities.

For the end user, the backend plumbing changes, but the card in their digital wallet simply becomes more efficient.

Discover: Diversify your crypto portfolio with these top picks

The post Ether.fi Moves Crypto Card Product to OP Mainnet From Scroll appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Crypto World

Bitcoin $60K Retest Odds Rise As Bearish Options, ETF Outflows Show Fear

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Bitcoin $60K Retest Odds Rise As Bearish Options, ETF Outflows Show Fear

Key takeaways:

  • Professional traders are paying a 13% premium for downside protection as Bitcoin struggles to maintain support above $66,000.

  • While stocks and gold remain strong, $910 million in Bitcoin ETF outflows suggest that institutional investor caution is rising.

Bitcoin (BTC) price entered a downward spiral after rejecting near $71,000 on Sunday. Despite successfully defending the $66,000 level throughout the week, options markets reflect growing fear as professional traders avoid downside price exposure. 

Even with relative strength in the stock market and gold prices, traders seem to be effectively betting on a $60,000 retest rather than overreacting to Bitcoin price dips.

BTC two-month options delta skew (put-call) at Deribit. Source: laevitas.ch

Bitcoin put (sell) options traded at a 13% premium relative to call (buy) instruments on Thursday. Under neutral conditions, the delta skew metric typically ranges between -6% and +6%, indicating balanced demand for upside and downside strategies. The fact that these levels have been sustained over the past four weeks shows that professional sentiment is leaning heavily toward caution.

Top BTC options strategies at Derbit past 48h, USD. Source: Laevitas.ch

This bearish bias is clear in the neutral-to-bearish positioning seen in Bitcoin options. According to Laevitas data, the bear diagonal spread, short straddle and short risk reversal were the most traded strategies on the Deribit exchange over the past 48 hours.

The first lowers the cost of the bearish bet because the short-term option loses value faster, while the second maximizes profit if Bitcoin price barely moves. The short risk reversal, on the other hand, generates profit from a downward move with little to no upfront cost, but it carries unlimited risk if the price spikes.

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Weak institutional demand for Bitcoin ETFs fuels discontent

To better gauge the risk appetite of traders, analysts often look at stablecoin demand in China. When investors rush to exit the cryptocurrency market, this indicator usually drops below parity.

USD stablecoin premium/discount relative to USD/CNY rate. Source: OKX

Under neutral conditions, stablecoins should trade at a 0.5% to 1% premium relative to the US dollar/Yuan exchange rate. This premium compensates for the high costs of traditional FX conversion, remittance fees and the regulatory friction caused by China’s capital controls. The current 0.2% discount suggests moderate outflows, though this is an improvement from the 1.4% discount seen on Monday.

Part of the current discontent among traders can be explained by the lackluster flows in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which serve as a proxy for institutional demand. 

Related: Bitcoin ETFs still sit on $53B in net inflows despite recent outflows–Bloomberg

US-listed Bitcoin ETFs daily net flows, USD. Source: Farside Investors

US-listed Bitcoin ETFs have seen $910 million in total outflows since Feb. 11, which likely caught bulls off balance, especially as Bitcoin traded 47% below its all-time high while gold prices hovered near $5,000, up 15% in just two months. Similarly, the S&P 500 index sat only 2% below its own all-time high, indicating that this risk-aversion is largely restricted to the cryptocurrency sector.

While Bitcoin options signal a fear of further downside, traders are likely staying extremely cautious until a clear rationale for the crash to $60,200 on Feb. 6 finally emerges.

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