WETH on Base is the WETH9 contract at 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000006 - a predeploy of the OP Stack that Base is built on, present at that address on Base mainnet and Base Sepolia alike (docs.base.org). It wraps Base’s own ETH 1:1, and on September 20, 2026 it had 241,555 WETH outstanding, 5,055,519 holders and 1,841,963 transfers in 24 hours, with source verified as WETH9 (Basescan). Wrapping and unwrapping there cost 0.00000016-0.00000019 ETH per transaction, a fraction of a cent. The rule: WETH on Base is a separate token from WETH on Ethereum, but it is the same contract code at a different address.
- Address: 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000006 on Base mainnet and Base Sepolia; the same predeploy address serves Optimism (docs.base.org, home page contracts table).
- Cost: a deposit() cost 0.00000016 ETH and a withdraw() 0.00000019 ETH on September 20, 2026 (Basescan) - roughly 1,000 times cheaper than the same call on Ethereum mainnet that day.
- Scale: 241,555 WETH outstanding against 2,058,243 on Ethereum mainnet, but 1.84M transfers a day on Base against 281k on mainnet (Basescan, Etherscan, September 20, 2026).
- Gas is ETH: Base charges fees in ETH; WETH does not pay gas on Base any more than on Ethereum.
What WETH on Base Is
WETH on Base is the ERC-20 wrapper of the ETH that circulates on Base, deployed as part of the chain itself rather than by a third party. Base runs the OP Stack, whose chains ship a fixed set of system contracts at 0x4200… addresses; the WETH9 wrapper is one of them, at 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000006, and the address is identical on Base mainnet and on the Base Sepolia testnet (docs.base.org). Basescan labels the contract “Wrapped Token” and “Bridged Token” and shows verified WETH9 source with 18 decimals.
The ETH it wraps is Base ETH: ETH that was deposited into the L1 StandardBridge on Ethereum (0x3154Cf16ccdb4C6d922629664174b904d80F2C35, docs.base.org) and credited on Base. So a WETH on Base is a claim on Base ETH, which is a claim on Ethereum ETH held by the bridge. That chain of custody is what makes it a canonical wrapper rather than a bridged token: the wrapping step itself is a plain WETH9 deposit(), with no bridge in between.
WETH on Base vs WETH on Ethereum
The two tokens share the contract code and the 1:1 peg and share nothing else. Figures are from Etherscan and Basescan, September 20, 2026.
| Parameter | WETH on Ethereum mainnet | WETH on Base |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | 0xC02aaA39b223FE8D0A0e5C4F27eAD9083C756Cc2 | 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000006 |
| Deployed | December 2017, by an external deployer | With the chain, as an OP Stack predeploy |
| Outstanding | 2,058,243 WETH | 241,555 WETH |
| Holders | 3,318,447 | 5,055,519 |
| Transfers, 24h | 280,877 | 1,841,963 |
| withdraw() fee | 0.0000111-0.0000723 ETH ($0.36-$2.06) | 0.00000019 ETH |
| Gas token | ETH | ETH |
| Backing | ETH held in the contract | Base ETH held in the contract; Base ETH backed by the L1 bridge |
Base has fewer WETH but more holders: 241,555 / 5,055,519 = 0.048 WETH per address on Base against 2,058,243 / 3,318,447 = 0.62 on mainnet, 13 times less per holder. It also moves faster: 1,841,963 transfers a day across 241,555 WETH is 7.6 transfers per WETH per day, against 280,877 / 2,058,243 = 0.14 on mainnet - 56 times the turnover. The Base contract is a token people transact with; the mainnet contract is where WETH is stored.
How to Get WETH on Base
There are four routes, and all four end with WETH at 0x4200…0006 on the Base network of your address.
- Wrap ETH you already hold on Base: send ETH to the contract’s deposit() (how WETH works) - from a wallet’s Wrap action, from a DEX interface with ETH -> WETH selected, or from Basescan’s Write Contract tab. Cost on September 20, 2026: 0.00000016 ETH (Basescan).
- Bridge ETH from Ethereum, then wrap: deposit ETH into the official Base bridge on Ethereum; it arrives as Base ETH, which you then wrap on Base. The deposit direction takes minutes; a withdrawal back to Ethereum through the official bridge waits out the OP Stack challenge period of 7 days (docs.base.org).
- Swap another token to WETH on Base: any Base DEX with a WETH pair - USDC/WETH is the most liquid - converts USDC, USDT or another token into WETH directly. Most interfaces wrap automatically when you pick WETH as the output.
- Buy or cross-chain swap into Base: a wallet with a fiat ramp or a cross-chain aggregator can deliver ETH or WETH on Base from a card or from an asset on another chain. Gem Wallet and other multi-chain wallets do this in one step; a bridge plus a DEX does it in two. Select Base as the destination network before confirming.
Whichever route you take, keep some Base ETH unwrapped: every later transaction on Base, including the unwrap, is paid in ETH.
How to Verify the WETH Address on Base
The address is short and easy to remember, which is exactly why fakes use near-identical ones. Three checks take a minute:
- Compare with the official list: docs.base.org lists WETH9 under Base contract addresses; the value must be 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000006 with the six at the end.
- Open the contract on Basescan: the token page must show the name Wrapped Ether (WETH), contract name WETH9, 18 decimals and verified source; a token with the same name and a different address is not it.
- Check the holders figure: the real contract has millions of holders; a copy has a handful.
The same predeploy address is used by Optimism and other OP Stack chains, so a wallet that shows 0x4200…0006 on Optimism is not confusing the networks - it is the same code deployed on each. The contract addresses section lists the canonical and bridged WETH address for every network the site covers, and How to unwrap WETH covers the withdraw() call on Base step by step.
What WETH on Base Cannot Do
- It cannot be sent to Ethereum as a token: the Base contract has no balance on Ethereum. Unwrap, bridge the ETH, and wrap again on the other side, or use a cross-chain swap.
- It cannot pay Base gas: fees on Base are charged in ETH; an address holding only WETH cannot transact until it receives ETH.
- It is not credited by every exchange: many exchange deposit addresses accept ETH on Base but not WETH on Base. Unwrap first, then check the exchange lists Base as a deposit network.
- It is not Base’s only “ETH” token: bridged variants brought over by third-party bridges use their own addresses. Only 0x4200…0006 is the canonical WETH that unwraps into Base ETH on the spot.