Lido Staked ETH (stETH) is a liquid staking token that represents ETH deposited through Lido Finance into Ethereum’s Proof of Stake validator set — allowing users to earn Ethereum staking rewards while keeping their capital liquid and DeFi-composable, without the 32 ETH minimum or technical overhead of running a validator.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | STETH |
| Price | $2,338.63 |
| Market Cap | $22.05B |
| 24h Change | +0.8% |
| Circulating Supply | 9.43M STETH |
| All-Time High | $4,932.89 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0xae7a...fe84 |
How It Works
- Deposit ETH to Lido — User sends any amount of ETH (no minimum). Lido issues stETH 1:1.
- Lido delegates to node operators — Lido’s DAO-approved operator set (including professional staking companies) runs Ethereum validators.
- Rewards accrue via rebase — Every 24 hours, stETH balances in every holder’s wallet automatically increase by the daily staking reward amount. If you hold 1 stETH and the network yields 4% APY, after one year you hold ~1.04 stETH.
- Liquid and composable — stETH trades freely on DEXes (primarily Curve’s stETH/ETH pool), serves as collateral on Aave, Maker, and Compound, and is accepted by most DeFi protocols.
wstETH (wrapped stETH): Because rebasing tokens can cause accounting issues in DeFi protocols, Lido offers wstETH — a non-rebasing wrapper where the balance stays fixed but the token’s value increases relative to ETH. Most DeFi integrations use wstETH.
Tokenomics
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | STETH |
| Chain | Ethereum |
| Contract | 0xae7ab96520de3a18e5e111b5eaab095312d7fe84 |
| Backing | 1:1 ETH held in Ethereum validator accounts |
| Rewards | ~3–5% APY (varies with network conditions) |
| Lido Fee | 10% of staking rewards (split: 5% to node operators, 5% to Lido DAO treasury) |
| Total ETH Staked | ~9+ million ETH as of 2026 |
Use Cases
- Staking yield with liquidity — Earn ETH staking rewards without locking funds.
- DeFi collateral — Deposit stETH/wstETH as collateral on Aave, MakerDAO, Compound.
- Liquidity provision — Provide stETH/ETH liquidity on Curve for additional yield.
- Yield compounding — Protocols like Yearn, Convex accept wstETH for compounded returns.
History
- 2020 — Lido Finance launches in December, days after Ethereum’s Beacon Chain goes live, enabling ETH staking before withdrawals are enabled. Users can stake but can only exit via selling stETH on markets.
- 2021 — stETH/ETH Curve pool launches and becomes one of the deepest liquidity pools in DeFi. Lido rapidly accumulates staked ETH.
- 2022 — Lido surpasses Coinbase to become the largest Ethereum staker. The Terra/LUNA collapse triggers stETH market stress — stETH briefly trades at a ~7% discount to ETH as leveraged holders (including Celsius) unwind positions.
- 2022 — Ethereum Merge completes. stETH holders begin accruing execution layer fees in addition to consensus rewards.
- 2023 — Ethereum Shapella upgrade enables staking withdrawals. stETH immediately re-pegs to near-perfect 1:1 with ETH. Lido V2 launches.
- 2024–2026 — Lido dominates liquid staking with ~33% of all staked ETH, raising ongoing concerns about Ethereum’s validator centralization. LDO governance votes on dual governance (ETH stakers + LDO holders) to address this.
Common Misconceptions
“stETH is always worth exactly 1 ETH.”
stETH targets a 1:1 peg with ETH but can trade at a discount in market stress events (as seen in June 2022). Since Shapella enabled withdrawals in April 2023, the peg has been very stable because arbitrageurs can exit via the withdrawal queue.
“Staking through Lido is risk-free.”
stETH carries smart contract risk (Lido’s contracts), node operator risk (slashing if validators misbehave), and market liquidity risk (selling stETH in thin markets). These risks are real but historically have been low.
Social Media Sentiment
stETH is one of the most discussed DeFi tokens. Debates center on Lido’s share of Ethereum staking (~30%+) and whether it poses systemic risks to Ethereum’s validator set. The Ethereum Foundation has publicly expressed concern about single-entity dominance. Lido proponents argue their distributed operator set is meaningfully decentralized.
Last updated: 2026-04