Wrapped tokens

Due to legacy design issues with EVM-compatible blockchains, any native token must be “wrapped” in order it to be used with decentralised exchanges.

To distinguish wrapped tokens from their native token counterparts, a letter W is added at the front of the token. E.g.

BNB -> WBNB

Even though tokens always need to be wrapped to trading, sometimes they are still referred as “BNB” in the user interface, when though on the smart contract level you are usinb WBNB token.

Wrapped token list

Here are some common wrapped tokens.

WETH

Ethereum mainnet: from ETH to WETH.

WMATIC

Polygon: from MATIC to WMATIC.

WAVAX

Avanlanche C-chain: from AVAX to WAVAX.

WBNB

Binance smart chain: from BNB to WBNB.

Bridged tokens

Besides wrapped tokens, there are bridged tokens. Bridges tokens have their primary implementation living on one blockchain, but then throuhg a locking mechanism make token liquidity available on other chains.

Bridges tokens do not have ‘W’ prefix.

An example of bridged token is ETH on Binance Smart Chain. This token is bridged through Binance custody. Because the native token of Binance Smart Chain is BNB, not ETH, ETH on Binance Smart Chain does not need to be wrapped.