LidoDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization behind Lido Finance, has officially launched its Wrapped Staked Ether (wstETH) on the Base network, as announced on November 8. This significant development allows users to trade and utilize wstETH within decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Base, Coinbase’s network.

The move aligns with Lido’s mission to facilitate liquid staking, a process that enables users to stake cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and still retain liquidity to participate in DeFi. Lido issues derivative tokens, like stETH for Ethereum, which can be traded or used while the actual Ether is staked and earning rewards.

To extend stETH’s utility across networks, it is wrapped into wstETH, a double derivative that was previously unavailable on the Base network in any official capacity. Before this official release, on October 17, Kyberswap highlighted an unofficial deployment of wstETH on Base by the Beefy Finance team. Following this, a proposal was put forward for LidoDAO to officially take control of this deployment and sanction it, which the DAO has now ratified with an overwhelming majority vote.

Marin Tvrdić, a contributor to LidoDAO, emphasized the significance of wstETH’s availability on Base, underscoring it as a key achievement towards broadening wstETH adoption and supporting Ethereum’s scaling and staking demands.

While this deployment has gained official status and approval within the Lido community, not all integrations of wstETH have been embraced. For example, a version of wstETH introduced by LayerZero for use on other blockchains like Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Scroll has encountered pushback for being too “proprietary” and has not yet received a formal stance from LidoDAO.

The deployment of wstETH on Base thus marks a milestone in Lido’s expansion across Layer 2 solutions, bridging the divide between Ethereum’s scaling hurdles and the escalating appetite for decentralized and scalable staking solutions.