stETH is a liquid staking token issued by Lido Finance that represents ETH staked on the Ethereum Beacon Chain plus all accrued staking rewards. It solves the core problem of traditional ETH staking: once you stake 32 ETH, your funds are locked. With stETH, stakers receive a liquid ERC-20 token immediately usable across DeFi.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | STETH |
| Price | $2,438.11 |
| Market Cap | $22.95B |
| 24h Change | +4.0% |
| Circulating Supply | 9.42M STETH |
| All-Time High | $4,932.89 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0xae7a...fe84 |
How stETH Works
- User deposits ETH into Lido smart contracts
- Lido distributes the ETH to a curated set of professional validators
- User receives an equal amount of stETH immediately
- stETH balance increases daily as validator rewards accrue — holding 1 stETH today means holding slightly more tomorrow
- User can use stETH in Aave, Curve, Maker, and hundreds of other DeFi protocols
- To exit, user swaps stETH back to ETH via DEX or via Lido withdrawals (enabled post-Shapella 2023)
stETH vs wstETH
| Token | Mechanism | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| stETH | Rebasing — balance increases daily | Simple staking exposure |
| wstETH | Wrapped, non-rebasing — price appreciates | DeFi protocols that don’t support rebasing tokens |
Most DeFi protocols use wstETH (wrapped stETH) to avoid rebasing accounting complexity.
Market Position
stETH consistently holds the largest TVL among all liquid staking tokens:
- TVL: Regularly exceeds $15–20B
- Depegs: stETH briefly traded at a 5% discount to ETH in June 2022 during the 3AC/Celsius crisis due to forced selling; it re-pegged after Shapella withdrawals enabled in April 2023
Risks
- Smart contract risk: Lido’s contracts are audited but not fail-proof
- Validator slashing: If Lido validators are slashed, stETH value decreases
- Centralization concern: Lido controls ~30% of staked ETH, raising systemic risk concerns
- Liquidity risk: stETH liquidity can dry up in crisis conditions
Sources
- Lido Finance documentation: docs.lido.fi
- Ethereum staking statistics: rated.network
- CoinGecko: stETH price and market data