Georgetown, Cayman Islands, April 15th, 2026 - ETHGas and ether.fi have formalized a three-year commercial partnership that commits $3 billion in ETH to ETHGas’ High Performance Staking (HPS) Service. The companies say the arrangement is aimed at creating institutional-grade forward markets for Ethereum blockspace and improving execution certainty for large-scale users of the network.
The agreement pairs ETHGas, a performance infrastructure provider focused on forward markets and execution guarantees for Ethereum, with ether.fi, a non-custodial staking protocol and onchain banking alternative that manages a substantial validator footprint. Under the terms announced, ether.fi will deploy approximately $3 billion - equal to about 40% of its current ETH holdings - into ETHGas’ HPS service for an initial term of three years, with deployment to begin immediately upon execution.
The current market gap
Today, Ethereum distributes blockspace through a spot, real-time auction model. That means each block is effectively decided at the last second, with no standard mechanism for forward pricing, pre-purchase, or execution guarantees. As a result, validators face volatile and unpredictable revenue streams, applications cannot be certain of when transactions will be included, and institutional actors lack common risk-management tools to operate at scale on Ethereum.
The parties point to rising throughput and accelerating institutional activity as reasons the shortfall in market infrastructure is becoming more acute. The announcement notes that over $25 billion in ETH is held across institutional vehicles, and argues that without a forward market for blockspace, institutions will lack the pricing and execution tools needed to scale.
How ETHGas intends to address the problem
ETHGas plans to construct an exchange-style layer where validators can pre-sell future rights to block inclusion. Buyers - including rollups, traders, solvers, and onchain applications - would be able to purchase guaranteed execution prior to the time of inclusion. By creating the ability to transact blockspace forward of real-time settlement, ETHGas aims to establish a forward curve for Ethereum blockspace and enable more transparent price discovery for this network resource.
According to ETHGas, this structure introduces the risk management primitives institutional participants require. By locking in execution and prices ahead of time, the platform is designed to reduce the uncertainty that accompanies a last-second spot auction model.
Providing the supply - ether.fi’s role
A forward market requires committed, predictable validator participation to be credible. ether.fi, which manages more than 2.8 million staked ETH and operates one of the largest validator footprints on Ethereum, will provide that supply under the pact. The $3 billion commitment by ether.fi to ETHGas’ HPS service is presented as the supply-side foundation needed to deliver reliable execution guarantees at scale to institutional buyers, rollups, and onchain applications.
Kevin Lepsoe, Founder and CEO of ETHGas, is quoted in the announcement: "Every major commodity market in history has moved from spot to futures. Ethereum blockspace is next. ether.fi’s commitment gives us the validator depth to make that market real, and with it, the foundation for Ethereum to function as a settlement layer for global institutional capital."
Key terms of the partnership
Under the agreement, ether.fi has agreed to commit approximately 40% of its ETH holdings, equivalent to $3 billion, to ETHGas’ HPS Service for three years and to deploy those funds immediately. ether.fi has also agreed to use ETHGas’ preconfirmation platform exclusively during the term. The commitments are subject to ongoing performance thresholds. The parties indicated they may expand the partnership’s scope and scale under a separate agreement.
The three-year tenor is described as reflecting the scale of the market infrastructure the partners aim to build. According to the announcement, developing a deep, liquid market for blockspace futures will take time, but the expected benefits could extend beyond institutional participants to enterprises and developers who would gain the ability to design applications around guaranteed execution timelines and predictable transaction costs.
Mike Silagadze, CEO and Founder of ether.fi, said: "Committing validator capacity to ETHGas is a direct extension of our mission to maximize what staked ETH can do. Preconfirmations improve execution certainty for our users, and participating in a structured forward market for blockspace opens yield opportunities that have never existed before. We are building for where Ethereum is going, not where it is today."
Implications described by the partners
The partnership is positioned as a precedent for how large ETH holders can participate in the next phase of Ethereum’s development. The announcement frames blockspace as a critical infrastructure layer for global financial markets as tokenized assets scale onchain and institutional demand for reliable execution increases. ETHGas and ether.fi described their $3 billion commitment as the start of a wider effort to build the validator depth and market structure they say Ethereum needs to meet that demand.
About ETHGas
ETHGas is described in the announcement as a settlement infrastructure for Ethereum blockspace commitments. The company promotes low-latency, 3ms settlement times and a suite of products centered on precision and predictable order execution. ETHGas positions its mission as advancing Ethereum into a real-time network and enabling end-users to protect themselves from gas price volatility, unlock additional yield opportunities, and improve the onchain experience.
About ether.fi
ether.fi is described as an onchain banking alternative that grew from a restaking protocol into a broader financial platform. The announcement notes that ether.fi operates vaults, staking services, and a crypto credit card product called Cash that it says leads by spend volume. The firm presents itself as serving both DeFi-native and mainstream users, helping them earn and spend crypto while bridging onchain and offchain financial activities.
Contacts
Wahaj Khan - wahaj@serotonin.co
Nathan Galindo - nathan@ether.fi
This article reports on the companies' announcement and the terms they disclosed. It does not add additional facts beyond the information published by the parties.