wstETH

Read Lido documentation for wstETH, including its role in the protocol contract architecture, integration context, related components and developer references.

What is wstETH?#

wstETH is the ERC-20 wrapper for stETH designed for integrations that prefer a non-rebasing token balance. The token represents a share of the underlying stETH position and its value in stETH changes as staking rewards accrue.

This makes wstETH especially useful for DeFi protocols, bridges and applications where rebasing balances are difficult to support directly.

Wrap and unwrap behavior#

The wrapper accepts stETH and mints wstETH. When wstETH is unwrapped, the wrapper burns wstETH and returns the corresponding amount of stETH.

Applications should use the contract conversion methods rather than hard-coded ratios because the stETH-per-wstETH rate changes over time.

Integration notes#

Use canonical deployed addresses for the target network, validate allowances and token decimals, and distinguish clearly between stETH and wstETH in user interfaces.

• Verify the intended Ethereum network and canonical deployed addresses.
• Handle unavailable or stale external data explicitly.
• Test token accounting and conversion behavior before production release.

Related documentation#