What is the ETH/stETH Pool?
The ETH/stETH pool is one of Curve Finance's most significant pools, enabling efficient swapping between ETH and Lido's staked ETH (stETH). This pool uses Curve's StableSwap algorithm optimized for assets that should trade at similar prices.
Understanding stETH
stETH is Lido's liquid staking token representing staked ETH on the Ethereum beacon chain. Each stETH token:
- Represents a share of Lido's total staked ETH
- Rebases daily to reflect staking rewards (token balance increases)
- Maintains approximate 1:1 peg to ETH, with minor deviations based on supply/demand
As of 2025, Lido holds over 8.7 million ETH, representing approximately 24% of all staked ETH.
How This Pool Works
The StableSwap algorithm concentrates liquidity around the 1:1 peg, enabling large swaps with minimal slippage. When ETH and stETH trade near parity, the pool behaves almost like a constant sum AMM (x+y=k). If prices diverge, the formula transitions toward constant product behavior.
Liquidity providers deposit ETH and/or stETH and receive steCRV tokens representing their pool share. Since stETH rebases, the pool's stETH balance grows over time from staking rewards.
Fee Structure and Yield Sources
The 1.25% APY reflects multiple yield sources:
- Curve trading fees (typically 0.04%)
- stETH staking rewards flowing through the pool
- Potential CRV emissions if the pool has an active gauge
Historically, Lido provided LDO incentives to this pool, but since June 2023, these have been eliminated as Ethereum withdrawals became available.
Impermanent Loss Considerations
The ETH/stETH pool has minimal impermanent loss under normal conditions since both assets should trade near 1:1. The primary risk scenario is a stETH depeg event, which could occur due to:
- Lido smart contract issues
- Slashing events affecting Lido validators
- Market panic causing temporary depegs (as seen in June 2022)
Risks
- Depeg Risk: stETH could trade below ETH in crisis scenarios
- Slashing Risk: Lido validators could be slashed, reducing stETH value
- Smart Contract Risk: Multiple protocol layers (Curve + Lido)
- Liquidity Crisis: Past events showed this pool can become imbalanced during market stress
- Opportunity Cost: Holding pure ETH or stETH may outperform LP position