When you hear wETH, wrapped Ether, a version of Ethereum formatted as an ERC-20 token to work seamlessly in DeFi apps. Also known as wrapped Ether, it lets you use ETH in places where native ETH can’t go—like lending protocols, DEXs, and yield farms. Without wETH, you couldn’t swap ETH for USDC on Uniswap, stake it in Aave, or use it as collateral in MakerDAO. Native ETH isn’t an ERC-20 token, so most smart contracts don’t know how to handle it. wETH fixes that.
wETH isn’t a new coin—it’s just ETH in a different wrapper. Every wETH you hold equals exactly 1 ETH, and you can always unwrap it back. The process is simple: you send ETH to a smart contract, and it gives you wETH in return. To get your ETH back, you send wETH to the same contract, and it burns the wETH and releases the ETH. No extra fees, no risk of losing value. It’s a 1:1 bridge between two worlds: the Ethereum blockchain and the DeFi ecosystem built on ERC-20 standards.
This matters because DeFi, a system of financial apps built on blockchain that let you lend, borrow, trade, and earn without banks runs on tokens, not native coins. You can’t use ETH directly in most DeFi apps—only tokens. So wETH became the glue. It’s used everywhere: in liquidity pools on SushiSwap, in collateral vaults on Compound, in NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Even ERC-20, a technical standard for tokens on Ethereum that defines how they interact with wallets and contracts relies on wETH to function smoothly. Without it, DeFi would be fragmented. You’d need separate systems for ETH and tokens, slowing everything down.
Some people think wETH is risky because it’s centralized—someone has to manage the wrapping contract. But the contract is open-source, audited, and has been running since 2017. Millions of dollars flow through it daily. If it broke, ETH would still exist on the main chain. You’d just lose the convenience. That’s why most traders and DeFi users treat wETH like ETH itself.
What you’ll find here are real guides on how wETH fits into crypto workflows—how to wrap and unwrap it, where to use it for better yields, how it connects to exchanges, and why it’s essential for anyone using DeFi. No theory. No fluff. Just clear, practical info from people who’ve used it.
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