HostWSTETH vs DAI — price, size and safety, side by side
WSTETH (Ethereum) vs DAI (Ethereum) — every figure is the freshest dated measurement we hold for that token, never a live-feed guess. Prices stamped 2026-09-27 / 2026-09-27.
WSTETH vs DAI — normalized performance, 2026-09-08 to 2026-09-27T15:10:18
| WSTETH | DAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.38K | $0.9983 |
| Market cap | $12.53B | $4.59B |
| 24h volume | $2.66M | $3.88M |
| Liquidity | $50.30M | $73.32M |
| FDV | $12.44B | $4.59B |
| Holders | 39,070 | 706,985 |
| Age (days) | 1,492 | 1,526 |
| Safety grade | B | B |
Where they differ
- WSTETH measures ~2.7× the market cap of DAI
- DAI measures ~18× the holder count of WSTETH
- over the shared window WSTETH moved +9.82% while DAI moved −0.19%
What the data says
WSTETH
wstETH is stETH made legible to DeFi — the same claim on Lido-staked Ether, wrapped so the balance stops moving: where stETH re-bases your token count upward each day, wstETH holds a fixed count and lets the exchange rate against stETH do the appreciating. That is the shape lending markets, bridges and LPs need, which is why the contract at 0x7f39c581f595b53c5cb19bd0b3f8da6c935e2ca0 became the canonical collateral form — our September 27, 2026 snapshot reads $50.3 million of tracked pool liquidity on it.
The verdict therefore inherits stETH's, plus one wrapper-layer note. You hold a claim on staked ETH via Lido — subject to its validator set, Ethereum's exit queue, and stETH's own depeg memory (June 2022, when it traded visibly under par) — and the price shown for wstETH is stETH's price times a steadily growing conversion rate, so it will always quote above ETH while tracking correctly. Nothing about that is a defect; it is the mechanic to understand before reading the quote as a premium.
DAI
DAI answered a question the other stablecoins on this site don't ask: can a dollar exist on-chain without a company behind it? Since 2019, the contract at 0x6b175474e89094c44da98b954eedeac495271d0f has held near a dollar not because anyone promises redemption at a bank, but because every DAI is minted against locked crypto collateral worth more than it, with interest rates and liquidations — governed by MakerDAO, now rebranded Sky — doing the work a treasurer would. No single company can freeze your DAI or pause the contract; that censorship-resistance is the property its holders are actually paying for.
The honest complications have grown over the years. A large share of DAI's backing has long included centralized stablecoins and real-world assets, which reimports a slice of the issuer risk the design was born to escape — the March 2023 weekend when USDC's depeg dragged DAI to roughly $0.89 alongside it made that dependency visible. And the 2024 rebrand to Sky, with its upgrade path to the newer USDS token, means DAI is now the legacy branch of its own ecosystem: still enormous, still redeemable through the same machinery, but no longer where its creators' roadmap points. Neither fact is a defect; both belong in the price of holding it.
FAQ
Which is bigger, WSTETH or DAI?
By tracked market cap: WSTETH (Ethereum) measures $12.53B and DAI (Ethereum) measures $4.59B — dated snapshots, not a live feed.
Which is safer, WSTETH or DAI?
On the contract checks we publish: WSTETH (Ethereum) grades B and DAI (Ethereum) grades B. A grade is a structural check on the contract, not a promise about the asset.
How have WSTETH and DAI performed over the shared window?
Between 2026-09-08 and 2026-09-27T15:10:18, the measured snapshots show WSTETH at +9.82% and DAI at −0.19%.
More comparisons
WSTETH vs LGNSWSTETH vs ETHWSTETH vs GHSTWSTETH vs RLUSDDAI vs PYUSDDAI vs BTCBDAI vs CBBTCUSDC vs DAI
The grade column is the one CMC's compare page cannot print — our grade is computed from the contract itself (mint/freeze authority, liquidity, holder concentration). Changes are measured over the shared window stated on the chart, 2026-09-08→2026-09-27T15:10:18; a token with fewer measured points measures a shorter span inside it.
Figures are dated on-chain snapshots, not a live feed. Safety grades are structural checks — not investment advice. Free · no signup · a NexFlow product.