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stLINK vs wstLINK: Rebasing vs Wrapped Tokens

stLINK and wstLINK represent the same staked LINK and earn the same rewards. They differ only in how those rewards show up.

stLINK wstLINK
Type Rebasing ERC20 Non-rebasing ERC20 (wrapped stLINK)
How rewards show up Your token balance grows The value of each token grows
Ratio to LINK 1:1 More than 1 LINK per wstLINK, generally rising over time
Best for Holding in your wallet DeFi: lending, collateral, liquidity pools
Chains Ethereum Ethereum, Arbitrum One, Base, Polygon
Section titled “stLINK: the rebasing token”

When you stake LINK, the StakingPool mints stLINK at a 1:1 ratio. Roughly every seven days a rebase distributes staking rewards by increasing every holder’s balance. If you hold 100 stLINK and the pool earns rewards, you’ll later hold slightly more than 100 stLINK.

Under the hood, the pool tracks shares. Your share count stays the same, and each rebase increases the amount of LINK that every share is worth.

Section titled “wstLINK: the wrapped token”

Many smart contracts, such as lending markets and AMMs, assume a token balance only changes when you transfer it. A balance that grows on its own breaks their accounting. wstLINK solves this: your wstLINK balance stays fixed, and each wstLINK becomes redeemable for more stLINK over time.

You can wrap stLINK into wstLINK and unwrap it back at any time. Wrapping is handled by the WrappedSDToken contract.

Which one should I use?

Section titled “Which one should I use?”
  • Holding and earning: keep stLINK. Your balance grows and you can see your rewards directly.
  • DeFi: use wstLINK where a protocol needs a non-rebasing token. Current integrations include:
    • Morpho: borrow LINK against wstLINK collateral.
    • Folks Finance: borrow LINK or stablecoins against wstLINK across several chains.
  • Liquidity provision: the Curve stLINK/LINK pool takes stLINK directly.
  • Other chains: wstLINK is also available on Arbitrum One, Base and Polygon.

See DeFi integrations for every supported protocol.

Risks

Section titled “Risks”

If you use wstLINK as collateral, a sharp drop in its market price on DEXs (a de-peg) can trigger liquidation, even though its redemption value is unchanged. Read What happens if stLINK de-pegs? before borrowing against it.

The same model applies to stPOL/wstPOL and stESP/wstESP.

Token addresses

Section titled “Token addresses”
Chain Token Address
Ethereum stLINK 0xb8b295df2cd735b15BE5Eb419517Aa626fc43cD5
Ethereum wstLINK 0x911D86C72155c33993d594B0Ec7E6206B4C803da

See all contract addresses for wstLINK on Arbitrum, Base and Polygon.