WETH is ETH in an ERC-20 wrapper that earns nothing and redeems 1:1; stETH, wstETH, cbETH and rETH are receipts for ETH that is staked with validators and earns rewards, so their balance or their value in ETH grows over time. On September 29, 2026 one wstETH converted into 1.2452 stETH, one rETH into 1.1728 ETH and one cbETH into 1.1406 ETH, while one WETH stayed at exactly 1 ETH (on-chain reads of each contract at block 26,084,693). The rule that separates them: a wrapper changes the token standard of ETH, a liquid staking token changes what the ETH is doing.
- One grows, one does not: WETH redeems for 1 ETH by contract; rETH redeems for 1.1728 ETH and cbETH for 1.1406 ETH, the part above 1 being accumulated staking rewards (contract reads, September 29, 2026).
- Scale: Lido's stETH supply of 9,839,931 is 4.8 times the 2,053,190 WETH in WETH9 (9,839,931 / 2,053,190), with far fewer holders: 628,230 against 3,320,331 (Etherscan, September 27-29, 2026).
- Position size: 9,839,931 / 628,230 = 15.7 stETH per holder against 2,053,190 / 3,320,331 = 0.62 WETH per holder - staking receipts sit in positions 25 times larger than WETH, which is a working balance for DeFi.
- Rebase vs rate: stETH balances are recalculated daily when the Lido oracle reports; wstETH, cbETH and rETH keep a fixed balance and a rising exchange rate (docs.lido.fi, help.coinbase.com).
What Separates WETH From Liquid Staking Tokens
WETH is a wrapper: ETH locked in the WETH9 contract and reissued as an ERC-20 token, with nothing done to the ETH in between. Its only job is compatibility - letting contracts written for tokens handle ETH (what WETH is). The contract has no owner, no validator and no yield, so its token can never be worth more or less than one ETH.
A liquid staking token (LST) is a receipt: the ETH behind it is deposited into validators on the Ethereum consensus layer and earns staking rewards, and the token lets the holder use that position while it is staked. Lido issues stETH and its wrapper wstETH, Coinbase issues cbETH, Rocket Pool issues rETH. Each has an issuer, a set of validator operators and a redemption path of its own, which WETH does not have. WETH belongs to the class of wrapped tokens; LSTs belong to staking.
WETH vs stETH, wstETH, cbETH and rETH Compared
The table compares the five tokens on Ethereum mainnet. Exchange rates and supplies are on-chain reads from each token contract at block 26,084,693, September 29, 2026.
| Parameter | WETH | stETH | wstETH | cbETH | rETH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | none (WETH9 contract) | Lido | Lido | Coinbase | Rocket Pool |
| What backs it | ETH held in the contract | staked ETH | stETH held in the wstETH contract | ETH staked through Coinbase | ETH staked by Rocket Pool operators |
| Earns rewards | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| How rewards show | - | balance grows daily (rebase) | exchange rate rises | exchange rate rises | exchange rate rises |
| Value of 1 token | 1 ETH | about 1 ETH, balance grows | 1.2452 stETH | 1.1406 ETH | 1.1728 ETH |
| Supply on Ethereum | 2,053,190 | 9,839,931 | 3,728,207 | 393,751 | 316,155 |
| Way back to ETH | withdraw(), one transaction, any amount | Lido withdrawal queue or DEX | unwrap to stETH, then as stETH | Coinbase or DEX | burn through Rocket Pool or DEX |
The stETH supply includes the stETH locked inside wstETH: 3,728,207 wstETH x 1.2452 = about 4.64 million stETH, or 47% of all stETH, is held in its wrapped form. Two more readings of the table matter. The “value of 1 token” row is not a market premium: 1.1728 ETH per rETH is what the contract itself credits, so buying rETH at that rate is fair, not expensive. And only the WETH column has a same-transaction exit at par for any size; every LST exit depends on a queue, a custodian or a DEX pool.
Rebasing Tokens vs Exchange-Rate Tokens
Liquid staking tokens pass rewards to holders in one of two ways, and the choice decides how they behave inside contracts.
- Rebasing (stETH): the number of tokens in your wallet changes. Lido’s docs state that stETH balances are recalculated daily when the oracle reports the consensus-layer balance, and that transferring a whole balance can leave 1-2 wei behind because of share-to-token rounding.
- Exchange-rate (wstETH, cbETH, rETH): the balance stays fixed and each token redeems for more ETH over time. Lido updates the wstETH rate once a day with the stETH rebase; Coinbase describes cbETH’s conversion rate rising as rewards are earned.
wstETH exists for the same reason WETH does. Many DeFi contracts cannot track a balance that changes by itself, so Lido wraps stETH into a token with a fixed balance, exactly as WETH9 wraps ETH into a token with a standard interface. The difference is the underlying: WETH wraps idle ETH at 1:1, wstETH wraps a staking position at a rate that has reached 1.2452 stETH.
What the Numbers Above 1 Mean
An exchange rate above 1 is accumulated staking income, not a price. rETH at 1.1728 ETH means one rETH is a claim on 1.1728 ETH of staked principal and rewards; cbETH at 1.1406 is a claim on 1.1406 ETH. These rates rise under normal operation, fall only if the pool is penalized, and are read from the token contracts, not from exchanges.
The same logic explains why these tokens are not interchangeable with WETH in a pool or a loan. A lending market that values 1 rETH as 1 WETH would misprice it by 17%; protocols therefore use each LST’s own rate oracle, while WETH needs none. On the WETH price page the rate is fixed at 1:1 for the same reason.
Risks WETH Does Not Carry
- Validator risk: staked ETH can be penalized or slashed if a validator misbehaves; the ETH in WETH9 is never staked.
- Issuer and operator risk: stETH and wstETH depend on Lido’s contracts and operators, cbETH on Coinbase, rETH on Rocket Pool’s node operators and contracts; WETH9 has no owner and no upgrade path.
- Exit risk: LST redemptions go through queues or custodians, and on a DEX an LST can trade below the ETH behind it when many holders sell at once; WETH redeems at par from the contract in one block.
- Integration risk: a rebasing balance can break contracts that assume fixed balances, which is why wstETH and not stETH is the form used in most DeFi.
When You Need WETH and When an LST
Use WETH when the goal is to use ETH inside a contract - a swap, a pool, a WETH-denominated bid, collateral that must stay exactly 1 ETH - and to get the ETH back at par at any moment (how to wrap ETH). Use an LST when the goal is to earn staking rewards on ETH you intend to hold, and the exit through a queue, a custodian or a DEX is acceptable. The two are not alternatives for the same job: a wallet can hold both, and many DeFi positions pair them.
What a Liquid Staking Token Cannot Do
- It cannot be unwrapped through WETH9: the WETH contract only knows WETH; each LST has its own exit (how to unwrap WETH).
- It cannot pay gas: fees on Ethereum are charged in native ETH, not in stETH, wstETH, cbETH, rETH or WETH.
- It cannot be counted as 1 ETH: each LST is worth its own rate in ETH, which is why the lookalikes table and the ETH vs WETH comparison treat WETH alone as the 1:1 form.