ETH to WETH: How to Wrap ETH, What It Costs and Where the WETH Lands

Converting ETH to WETH is a call to the deposit() function of the WETH9 contract: you send ETH, the contract keeps it and credits the same amount of WETH to your address, 1:1 and with no fee of its own. On September 29, 2026 a deposit() on Ethereum mainnet cost 0.00002948-0.00013946 ETH ($0.08-$0.37), on Arbitrum 0.00000119 ETH and on Base 0.00000017-0.00000049 ETH (Etherscan, Arbiscan, Basescan). The rule to keep in mind: wrapping is not a trade - nothing is bought or sold, the ETH only changes its token standard and stays redeemable at par.

What Converting ETH to WETH Means

Converting ETH to WETH means handing native ETH to the WETH9 contract in exchange for an ERC-20 balance of the same size. ETH itself does not implement the ERC-20 interface - no transfer(), approve() or transferFrom() - so contracts built for tokens cannot pull it from your address; WETH is the same ETH behind that interface. The mechanism and the reason for it are on the home page; this page is about doing it.

The contract on Ethereum mainnet is 0xC02aaA39b223FE8D0A0e5C4F27eAD9083C756Cc2, verified on Etherscan since December 2017. Its deposit() adds msg.value to your WETH balance and emits a Deposit event; its fallback function calls deposit() too, which is why plain ETH sent to the contract from a self-custody address also comes back as WETH. Nothing else happens: no fee is skimmed, no rate is applied, and the ETH is released again by withdraw() whenever you want it back (How to unwrap WETH).

How Much Wrapping ETH Costs

Wrapping costs one network fee. The contract charges nothing, and the amount wrapped does not change the fee: 0.0056 ETH and 6.1 ETH were wrapped on mainnet within four minutes of each other on September 29, 2026 for fees of 0.00010855 ETH and 0.00008541 ETH.

USD at $2,667 per ETH (Etherscan, September 29, 2026). On mainnet the fee is gas used times gas price, and both parts move. Gas used has two levels: about 45,000 gas when the address holds no WETH and about 27,900 gas when it already holds some, because writing a balance slot from zero costs more than updating an existing one. Gas price follows network load; the deposits above were sent at 1.05-3.17 gwei, while Etherscan’s gas tracker showed a 5.6 gwei average on September 28, 2026, at which the same first wrap would cost about $0.68.

Three Ways to Convert ETH to WETH

Every route below ends in the same deposit() call on the WETH9 contract of your network; they differ only in who builds the transaction.

In a Wallet With a Built-In Wrap

A wallet that treats WETH as a regular asset shows a Wrap or Swap to WETH action on the ETH balance. Gem Wallet, for example, wraps and unwraps ETH and WETH inside the app, routing the call through its built-in DEX aggregator, so the result is a plain deposit() without leaving the wallet.

1. Select ETH on the network you want WETH on: Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and Optimism each keep a separate ETH and WETH balance.
2. Choose Wrap or Swap to WETH and enter the amount: the quote shows a 1:1 rate and a network fee only.
3. Keep some ETH unwrapped and confirm: WETH appears on the same address in the next block.

On a DEX Interface

Uniswap, 1inch and other DEX front-ends recognize the pair ETH -> WETH and send it to deposit() instead of a pool: the screen shows a 1:1 rate, no price impact and no liquidity-provider fee. Pick native ETH as input and WETH as output. If the interface shows a rate other than 1:1 or a pool fee, it is routing a trade, not a wrap - check that the output is WETH on the same network, not a bridged variant.

Directly on the Contract

1. Open the WETH9 contract on your network’s explorer: Etherscan for mainnet, Arbiscan for Arbitrum, Basescan for Base; the Contract tab must show verified source named WETH9.
2. Go to Contract -> Write Contract and connect the wallet: the explorer only builds the transaction; the key stays in the wallet.
3. Call deposit with the amount in the payable field: this field takes ETH, not wei (1 means 1 ETH); deposit() has no other parameters.
4. Confirm: one transaction, paid in ETH; the WETH balance rises by the same amount when it is mined.

Where the WETH Lands

WETH lands on the address that sent the ETH, on the network where the deposit ran - nowhere else. Wrapping on Arbitrum does not create WETH on Ethereum, and the WETH on Base is a different contract from the WETH on mainnet (WETH on Base).

• Balance not visible: most wallets list WETH automatically; if not, add the token by the contract address of that network from the contract addresses table.
• Same address, different chain: an EVM address is identical on every network, but its WETH balance is kept separately by each network’s contract.
• Wrong token name: a token called “Wrapped Ether” at any other address is not WETH9; the explorer’s verified source and the holder count identify the real one.

What Wrapping ETH Does Not Do

• It does not pay gas: WETH cannot pay network fees; an address that wraps its last ETH cannot send the next transaction, including the unwrap (gas and WETH).
• It does not earn anything: WETH stays exactly 1 ETH forever; tokens that grow against ETH are staking receipts, not wrappers (WETH vs liquid staking tokens).
• It does not move funds between networks: wrapping is local to one chain; moving value to another chain is a bridge or a cross-chain swap.
• It does not change the price: 1 WETH is priced as 1 ETH everywhere (WETH price).

When You Need WETH and When ETH Is Enough

Wrap when the next contract takes ERC-20 tokens only: a lending market that lists WETH as collateral, an NFT marketplace that accepts WETH bids, an order-book DEX or a liquidity pool. Skip the wrap when you only hold, send ETH or swap through an interface that wraps for you in the same transaction - most swap front-ends accept native ETH and handle the WETH step internally, so a manual wrap first costs an extra fee for nothing.