I keep hearing about wSOL (Wrapped Solana) but the explanations are all over the place. From what I gather, it's basically an ERC-20 or SPL token that represents SOL on another chain so you can use it in DeFi apps that don't natively talk Solana.

In other words—it's not 'real SOL', just a wrapper pegged 1:1 that lets you trade/borrow on Ethereum or other ecosystems. Kinda like wBTC, but for Solana.

Here's my issue though: if you're trusting a custodian/bridge to mint the wrapped version, isn't that adding a massive extra layer of risk? We've all seen bridges get hacked for hundreds of millions.

So what's the point—why not just use native SOL with Phantom or Solflare? Is wSOL actually worth the trouble, or is it just another DeFi gimmick?