Wrap & Unwrap

wstETH is a wrapped version of stETH. Due to the nature of Lido, the amount of stETH on your balance is not constant - it changes daily as staking rewards come in. As some DeFi protocols require a constant balance mechanism for tokens, wstETH keeps your balance of stETH fixed and uses an underlying share system to reflect your earned staking rewards.

Example:

• You wrap 100 stETH to 99.87 wstETH.
• You continue to earn rewards on your wstETH.
• When you unwrap your wstETH, you receive 101 stETH.

You can wrap your stETH tokens using stake.lido.fi/wrap. Simply connect your wallet, unlock your stETH tokens and press Wrap.

You can also choose to convert your ETH to wstETH directly. To do this, select ETH on the token drop down. This allows you to save on gas when compared to swapping from ETH to stETH to wstETH.

wstETH is useful across DeFi protocols which are based around constant balance tokens. This includes Uniswap, soon to be followed by ARCx, L2 DEXes and more.

Yes, wrapped stETH earns staking rewards at the same rate as regular stETH. When you keep your stETH in a wrapper you cannot see your daily staking rewards. However, when you unwrap your wstETH your new stETH balance will have increased relative to pre-wrapped amount to reflect your earned rewards.

No, staking rewards accrue to wstETH automatically.

You can unwrap your wstETH tokens using stake.lido.fi/wrap?mode=unwrap. Simply connect your wallet, specify the amount of wstETH tokens and press Unwrap.