Wrapped stETH (WSTETH)

Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) is a non-rebasing, DeFi-compatible wrapper around stETH, the liquid staking token issued by the Lido protocol on Ethereum when users stake ETH through Lido. Rather than the token balance growing over time to reflect staking rewards, as happens with regular stETH, WSTETH keeps a fixed balance while its exchange rate against stETH rises to capture the accrued rewards, making it easier to integrate with lending markets, DEXs, and other smart contracts that cannot handle rebasing tokens.

The token is fully backed by an underlying stETH balance held in the wstETH smart contract on Ethereum, and holders can wrap or unwrap between stETH and WSTETH at any time at the contract's current conversion rate, with no separate collateral or peg mechanism involved. Because it accrues Ethereum staking rewards while remaining a static-balance ERC-20, WSTETH is the version of Lido's staked ETH most commonly used as collateral or a liquidity asset across DeFi protocols and bridged to other networks.