ETH vs WSTETH
Ethereum and Wrapped Lido Staked ETH scored on the same 25 variables, ranked against the same 251 tokens, with every gap between them shown.
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 7 Oct 2026.
What separates them
ETH scores 187 of 250 and ranks 2nd of 251. WSTETH scores 185 and ranks 3rd. ETH leads by 2 points, which is inside the range where the individual variables matter more than the total. ETH takes 7 of the 25 variables, WSTETH takes 10, and 8 are level.
4 variables separate them by 3 points or more. ETH is clear on Exchange Depth (10 against 6), Regulatory Safety (10 against 6) and Institutional Adoption (10 against 7). WSTETH is clear on Revenue Trend (8 against 5).
ETH is valued at $313.17B against $11.76B for WSTETH, a 26.6x difference. The larger of the two also scores higher, so the market and the framework agree on the ordering here.
All 25 variables, head to head
Both tokens were scored by the same framework in the same pass, so the numbers are directly comparable. What a comparison adds over two separate pages is the gap: a 6 against a 6 is a non-event, a 9 against a 3 is the reason to hold one and not the other.
Cash flow
| Protocol Revenue | 9 | 9 | level | |
| Revenue Trend | 5 | 8 | WSTETH +3 | |
| P/S Multiple | 5 | 7 | WSTETH +2 | |
| Real Staking Yield | 7 | 9 | WSTETH +2 |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 7 | 8 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Vesting Schedule | 10 | 10 | level | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 10 | 10 | level | |
| Buyback and Burn | 6 | 5 | ETH +1 |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 9 | 9 | level | |
| Insider Selling | 7 | 8 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Holder Concentration | 6 | 5 | ETH +1 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 6 | 7 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Active Users | 8 | 8 | level | |
| Developer Activity | 7 | 7 | level | |
| Network Growth | 8 | 7 | ETH +1 |
Position
| Market Share | 7 | 8 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Competitive Moat | 8 | 8 | level | |
| Institutional Adoption | 10 | 7 | ETH +3 | |
| Exchange Depth | 10 | 6 | ETH +4 | |
| Social Mindshare | 6 | 7 | WSTETH +1 |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 10 | 6 | ETH +4 | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 8 | 6 | ETH +2 | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 4 | 5 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Team Execution | 6 | 7 | WSTETH +1 | |
| Treasury Runway | 8 | 8 | level |
Bars read outward from the centre: ETH to the left, WSTETH to the right. The side that leads a variable is filled. Each score is 1 to 10 against the same definition applied to all 251 rated tokens.
Market and supply
| ETH | WSTETH | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,564 | $3,193 |
| Market cap | $313.17B | $11.76B |
| Circulating | 100% | 100% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1x | 1x |
| Off all-time high | -48.2% | -56% |
| To recover the high | 1.9x | 2.3x |
| Total value locked | $46.17B | $26.00B |
| Network | Ethereum | Ethereum |
Price, market cap and all-time high from the CoinGecko snapshot fetched 7 Oct 2026. Supply shares are derived from circulating and eventual supply counts, which do not move with price. The 25 scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
Catalyst and risk on each side
ETH · HOLD CORE
Glamsterdam ePBS (Q3 2026), CLARITY Act (the 4 July 2026 signing target was missed, the bill stalled in the Senate), staking ETF expansion
Burn collapsed (-71% post-Pectra), ETH/BTC 10mo low, 9 EF departures, identity crisis
WSTETH · HOLD CORE
WstETH becoming default collateral across all major lending protocols; MakerDAO, Aave, Spark all natively integrated
Lido centralization risk (about 24% of staked ETH, down from a 32% peak in 2023); Ethereum validator concentration concerns; potential regulatory classification as security
Common questions
- Is ETH or WSTETH the better investment?
- On this framework ETH scores higher: 187 against 185 of 250, and it is rated HOLD CORE against HOLD CORE. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and ETH still wins 7 of the 25 individual variables against WSTETH.
- What is the biggest difference between ETH and WSTETH?
- Exchange Depth. ETH scores 10 of 10 there and WSTETH scores 6, a gap of 4 points on a single variable.
- Which is bigger, ETH or WSTETH?
- ETH is valued at $313.17B and WSTETH at $11.76B on the latest market snapshot.
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Research and analysis, not investment advice. A higher score is one framework applied consistently to 251 tokens, not a prediction that one asset will outperform the other.