Summary
Timeline: From 2025-06-10 To 2025-06-11
Total Issues: 1 (0 resolved)
Medium Severity Issues: 1 (0 resolved)
Overview
Origin Ether (OETH) is a liquid staking token (LST) designed to maintain a tighter peg to ETH, offer greater security, and deliver higher yields compared to other LSTs. Wrapped OETH (wOETH) is an ERC-4626 tokenized vault that accrues yield through price appreciation rather than quantity increase, providing a non-rebasing alternative that still earns yield at the same rate as standard OETH.
An asset assessment was conducted on wOETH to evaluate its suitability as a collateral asset for the WETH market on Ethereum within the Compound ecosystem.
Materials Reviewed
| Material | Version/Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Documentation | As of 2025-06-10 | Origin Protocol Documentation |
| Proposal Discussion | As of 2025-06-10 | Compound Community Forum |
| OETH Analytics | As of 2025-06-10 | Origin Analytics |
| Risk Assessment | As of 2025-06-10 | LlamaRisk Report |
Summary of Findings
Key Concerns:
- The only available Chainlink price feed for OETH on Ethereum is flagged as “High Market Risk”, which may result in monetary losses if not integrated with appropriate safeguards.
Positive Observations:
- OETH and wOETH have an established presence in the DeFi ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on security through regular audits and active bug bounty programs.
- The tokens do not pose centralization risks: upgrades are managed by a Governance contract and executed via a Timelock mechanism that enforces a 48-hour delay before any changes take effect.
Asset Information
Asset Name: wOETH
Asset Type: Wrapped LST
Created Date: March 31, 2023
Blockchain: Ethereum Mainnet
Contract Address: 0xDcEe70654261AF21C44c093C300eD3Bb97b78192
Contract Verification: Verified
Asset Standard: ERC-4626
Key Metrics
| Metric | Value | Source | Verification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Supply | 17,718 | Etherscan | Verified |
| Market Cap | 54.96M | CoinMarketCap | Verified |
| Holders | 116 | Etherscan | Verified |
Token Economics
OETH earns staking yield from the Ethereum Beacon Chain using Distributed Validator Technology (DVT). This architecture enables open and simplified validator management while allowing the protocol to capture additional incentives from DVT platforms, which are redistributed to OETH holders as supplementary yield.
Protocol earnings are funneled into a Dripper contract in the form of WETH. This mechanism introduces a delay in yield distribution to smooth out volatility and mitigate the risk of reward front-running.
OETH has no fixed emission schedule. It is minted on demand when users deposit ETH into the protocol and burned on redemption. ETH can be converted to OETH through Curve swaps or by using a convenience contract called Zapper, which automatically wraps ETH into WETH and deposits it into the OETH Vault.
To maintain a tight 1:1 peg with ETH, OETH relies on a combination of permissionless ETH withdrawals and an instant redemption mechanism via the Automated Redemption Manager (ARM).
For broader DeFi compatibility, OETH can be wrapped into wOETH and unwrapped atomically and permissionlessly. The current exchange rate between wOETH and OETH can be obtained from the wOETH smart contract or the OETH dApp. As of now, approximately 45% of all OETH is held in the form of wOETH.
Distribution
| Holder Category | Percentage | Number of Addresses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
LockReleaseTokenPool Contract |
86.87% | 1 | This contract is used by Chainlink’s CCIP. |
| Top 10 Holders | 99.11% | 10 | Aside from the LockReleaseTokenPool, no individual holder controls more than 3.26% of the total token supply. |
Access Control
| Role | Capabilities | Controlled by |
|---|---|---|
| Governor | Can perform contract upgrades and recover tokens (other than OETH) stuck in the contract. | OGN holders |
Asset Checklist
Token Standard Compliance
| Requirement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ERC-4626 | COMPLIANT | N/A |
Token Security
| Requirement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Audited | COMPLIANT | Origin has a continuous auditing agreement with OpenZeppelin to review the OETH and wOETH smart contract changes. |
| No Fee-on-transfer | COMPLIANT | N/A |
| No Blocklist | COMPLIANT | N/A |
| No Delay in transfer | COMPLIANT | N/A |
Common Vulnerabilities Check
| Vulnerability | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Should Not Expose Centralization Risks | COMPLIANT | Token minting, redemption, and transfers are permissionless. |
Medium Severity
Possible Reliance on High-Risk Chainlink Price Feed
Chainlink’s OETH / ETH price feed on Ethereum Mainnet is currently the only available price feed for OETH on that chain.
However, this feed is explicitly labeled “High Market Risk” on the Chainlink website, indicating that the reported price may be volatile or subject to uncertainty. Similar feeds have caused issues in the past—for example, the recent deUSD price spike led to over $500K in user losses from liquidations triggered by a temporary oracle distortion.
Consider actively monitoring the volatility of any high-risk price feeds used in production and implementing mitigation strategies where appropriate. These may include volatility thresholds and fallback pricing mechanisms.
Conclusion
wOETH was reviewed for its potential use as collateral in the WETH market on Ethereum Mainnet.
The primary concern identified relates to the Chainlink price feed for OETH, which is currently marked as high-risk. This risk should be carefully evaluated when considering integration into the Compound protocol. Beyond this, wOETH presents no major issues and appears suitable for use as collateral.
Risk Assessment
| Risk Category | Risk Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Risk | LOW | wOETH has been thoroughly audited and is in scope for Origin’s bug bounty program. |
| Economic Risk | LOW | The asset is fully collateralized by WETH. |
| Operational Risk | LOW | The contract is upgradeable only through Governance, with a 48-hour timelock. |
| Price Feed Risk | MEDIUM | The only Chainlink price feed for OETH on Ethereum Mainnet is marked as “High Market Risk”. |
Final Recommendations
The following recommendations are provided for enabling wOETH as collateral in the WETH market on Ethereum Mainnet:
- Risk parameters suggested by Gauntlet should be reviewed by the community and potentially updated, as they were published over 10 months ago.
- Upgrades to the OETH and wOETH token contracts via Origin’s Governance should be actively monitored to ensure no new risks are introduced to Compound.
- The price oracle solution for wOETH must be resilient and account for the possibility of sharp price movements, especially if relying on a high-risk underlying price feed.