Startups: FHE & restaking
Fhenix is pushing confidential DeFi on Ethereum using fully homomorphic encryption to run encrypted smart contracts — a potentially big privacy upgrade for on‑chain finance. (x.com) EtherFi is ramping non‑custodial liquid restaking with its eETH product integrated into EigenLayer and a validator marketplace, plus mentions of hybrid seed systems for post‑quantum wallet security are circulating in wallet‑tech threads. (x.com) (x.com)
Fhenix brought its CoFHE FHE coprocessor live on Base on Feb. 5, 2026, marking the first deployment of an FHE coprocessor on that L2. (fhenix.io) The team published a new “Decomposed BFV” (DBFV) design on Feb. 6, 2026, describing an exact-FHE construction the company says improves performance and scalability for on‑chain encrypted computation. (chainwire.org) Fhenix has open‑sourced a TypeScript SDK (cofhejs) and developer docs on GitHub to let dApp teams encrypt inputs, manage permits, and unseal outputs. (github.com) The CoFHE product page and tutorials advertise a one‑line Solidity import for fhEVM integration and claim decryption performance improvements versus competitor implementations in their benchmarks. (fhenix.io) EtherFi’s protocol currently shows roughly $5.25 billion in total value locked according to DeFiLlama, where its staking, restaking and vault services are tracked. (defillama.com) EtherFi states its contracts natively restake pooled ETH on EigenLayer, operate validators via Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), and issue rebasing eETH alongside a wrapped non‑rebasing weETH for DeFi composability. (etherfi.gitbook.io) eETH’s public mint/redeem launch is recorded as Nov. 15, 2023, and the protocol closed an early $5.3M raise ahead of its 2023 mainnet debut, per contemporary coverage. (messari.io) (coindesk.com) EtherFi runs a node‑services/validator marketplace with operator auctions and permissioned DVT flows, expanded Operation Solo Staker with Obol to onboard home stakers, and announced participation in the ETHGas blockspace marketplace with six deployed validators. (etherfi.gitbook.io) (blog.obol.org) (ethgas.com) Wallet‑tech threads and new repos show hybrid post‑quantum seed and wallet prototypes that pair classical keys with NIST‑aligned PQ attestations — for example the PQ‑PSBT‑WALLET repo demonstrating BIP‑341 Taproot + PQ attestations. (github.com) Standards and tooling work is active: SignerHQ’s universal‑quantum‑seed and Tectonic Labs’ PQ wallet releases illustrate hybrid seed approaches and Falcon‑based PQ signatures, while IETF drafts and industry playbooks recommend hybrid HPKE migrations as an interim path to PQ safety. (github.com) (tectonic.xyz) (ietf.org) Despite active experimentation and prototypes, industry surveys and reporting note that major consumer hardware wallets and default wallet standards have not yet shipped built‑in post‑quantum key support, keeping hybrid designs in the research and tooling phase. (blockchainweb3insights.com)
