stETH is the token Lido issues for ETH staked through its protocol, and its balance grows every day as staking rewards arrive; WETH is plain ETH in an ERC-20 wrapper whose balance and value never change. On October 2, 2026 there were 9,839,232 stETH across 628,631 holders, quoted at 0.999548 ETH, while WETH stood at exactly 1 ETH (Etherscan). The rule that separates them: stETH gives you more tokens over time, WETH gives you the same token count and the same value forever.
- Rebase vs fixed: stETH balances are recalculated once a day by Lido's oracle; at the 2.3% APR lido.fi showed on October 2, 2026, 100 stETH grows by about 100 x 2.3% / 365 = 0.0063 stETH a day. A WETH balance changes only when you transact.
- Price gap: Etherscan quoted stETH at 0.999548 ETH on October 2, 2026 - 0.045% below ETH; WETH redeems at par from WETH9, so it has no gap to quote.
- Size: 9,839,232 stETH is 4.8 times the 2,031,131 WETH in WETH9 (9,839,232 / 2,031,131), held in positions of 15.7 stETH per holder against 0.61 WETH per holder (Etherscan, Ethereum RPC, October 2, 2026).
- Wrapped form: 46% of all stETH sits inside wstETH, the non-rebasing wrapper DeFi uses (wstETH contract, October 1, 2026).
What stETH Is
stETH is a receipt for ETH deposited into Lido, which stakes it with validators on the Ethereum consensus layer. The token at 0xae7ab96520DE3A18E5e111B5EaAb095312D7fE84 represents a share of all ETH Lido controls, expressed so that one stETH stays close to one ETH: instead of the token’s value rising, the number of tokens each holder has rises (docs.lido.fi). Lido showed 9,839,539 ETH staked and a 2.3% APR on October 1-2, 2026 (lido.fi).
WETH is not a receipt for anything that earns. The ETH behind it sits idle in the WETH9 contract, never delegated to a validator, and one WETH is always one ETH (what WETH is). Both are ERC-20 tokens tied to ETH; only stETH carries staking.
stETH vs WETH Side by Side
Figures are Etherscan and on-chain reads on Ethereum mainnet, October 2, 2026.
| Parameter | stETH | WETH |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Lido | none (WETH9 contract) |
| What backs it | ETH staked by Lido’s validators | ETH held in the contract |
| Earns rewards | yes, 2.3% APR (lido.fi) | no |
| Balance | changes daily (rebase) | changes only with your transactions |
| Market price | 0.999548 ETH | 1 ETH |
| Supply | 9,839,232 | 2,031,131 |
| Holders | 628,631 | 3,322,783 |
| Way back to ETH | Lido withdrawal queue or a DEX | withdraw(), one transaction |
| Form used in DeFi | mostly wstETH | WETH itself |
The last row explains why stETH appears less often in DeFi than its supply suggests: contracts that store balances cannot follow a token whose balances change on their own, so most integrations take wstETH instead (wstETH vs WETH).
How the stETH Rebase Works
Once a day Lido’s oracle reports the total ETH balance of its validators, and stETH balances are recalculated from that report (docs.lido.fi). Your address does not send or receive a transaction; the balanceOf() value simply reads higher after the report. Under the hood stETH tracks shares, and the balance is your shares times the current ETH per share.
Two side effects follow. A full-balance transfer can leave 1-2 wei behind because of share-to-token rounding, which Lido’s docs address with transferShares(). And any contract that records your stETH balance at one moment will be out of date the next day - the reason wstETH, with a fixed balance and a rising rate, exists. WETH has neither effect: its balances are plain integers that change only through deposit, withdraw and transfer.
stETH to ETH vs WETH to ETH
- WETH: withdraw() on WETH9 burns the WETH and returns the same amount of ETH in the same transaction (how to unwrap WETH).
- stETH through Lido: submit a withdrawal request; Lido issues a request NFT and the ETH becomes claimable when the request is finalized, which depends on the queue and validator exits rather than on one block (docs.lido.fi).
- stETH through a DEX: sell stETH for ETH in one transaction at the market price - 0.999548 ETH per stETH on October 2, 2026 - plus the pool’s fee.
The Lido route returns full value later; the DEX route returns slightly less value now. WETH has one route with neither cost.
Why stETH Is Not Priced at Exactly 1 ETH
stETH’s quote moves around 1 ETH because selling it on a market competes with waiting in the withdrawal queue. When many holders want ETH immediately, the market price slips below 1; when the queue is short, arbitrage keeps it close. On October 2, 2026 the gap was 0.045%. WETH has no such gap because anyone can redeem any amount at par from WETH9 in the same block, which is also why the WETH price page needs no separate quote.
What stETH Cannot Do
- It cannot be unwrapped through WETH9: the WETH contract only burns WETH; stETH exits through Lido or a market.
- It cannot keep a fixed balance: contracts that need fixed balances use wstETH; stETH itself rebases daily.
- It cannot pay gas: network fees are paid in native ETH, never in stETH or WETH (why WETH cannot pay gas).
- It cannot stand in for 1 WETH: protocols list stETH or wstETH separately with their own pricing; the lookalikes table and the liquid staking comparison show where each token fits, and cbETH vs WETH covers Coinbase’s rate-based alternative.
When to Hold stETH and When WETH
Hold stETH when the goal is staking rewards on ETH you plan to keep and a queue or a small market discount on exit is acceptable. Hold WETH when the goal is to use ETH inside a contract - a swap, a pool, a WETH bid - and to get exactly the same ETH back at any moment. stETH and WETH are both tokens tied to ETH, but they answer different questions: what the ETH earns, and where the ETH can go.