IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2009.13235.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Liquidations: DeFi on a Knife-edge

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Perez
  • Sam M. Werner
  • Jiahua Xu
  • Benjamin Livshits

Abstract

The trustless nature of permissionless blockchains renders overcollateralization a key safety component relied upon by decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Nonetheless, factors such as price volatility may undermine this mechanism. In order to protect protocols from suffering losses, undercollateralized positions can be liquidated. In this paper, we present the first in-depth empirical analysis of liquidations on protocols for loanable funds (PLFs). We examine Compound, one of the most widely used PLFs, for a period starting from its conception to September 2020. We analyze participants' behavior and risk-appetite in particular, to elucidate recent developments in the dynamics of the protocol. Furthermore, we assess how this has changed with a modification in Compound's incentive structure and show that variations of only 3% in an asset's dollar price can result in over 10m USD becoming liquidable. To further understand the implications of this, we investigate the efficiency of liquidators. We find that liquidators' efficiency has improved significantly over time, with currently over 70% of liquidable positions being immediately liquidated. Lastly, we provide a discussion on how a false sense of security fostered by a misconception of the stability of non-custodial stablecoins, increases the overall liquidation risk faced by Compound participants.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Perez & Sam M. Werner & Jiahua Xu & Benjamin Livshits, 2020. "Liquidations: DeFi on a Knife-edge," Papers 2009.13235, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2009.13235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.13235
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sam M. Werner & Paul J. Pritz & Daniel Perez, 2020. "Step on the Gas? A Better Approach for Recommending the Ethereum Gas Price," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Panos Pardalos & Ilias Kotsireas & Yike Guo & William Knottenbelt (ed.), Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy, pages 161-177, Springer.
    2. Lewis Gudgeon & Sam M. Werner & Daniel Perez & William J. Knottenbelt, 2020. "DeFi Protocols for Loanable Funds: Interest Rates, Liquidity and Market Efficiency," Papers 2006.13922, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2020.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiahua Xu & Krzysztof Paruch & Simon Cousaert & Yebo Feng, 2021. "SoK: Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) with Automated Market Maker (AMM) Protocols," Papers 2103.12732, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2023.
    2. Jiahua Xu & Nikhil Vadgama, 2021. "From banks to DeFi: the evolution of the lending market," Papers 2104.00970, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    3. Kaihua Qin & Liyi Zhou & Pablo Gamito & Philipp Jovanovic & Arthur Gervais, 2021. "An Empirical Study of DeFi Liquidations: Incentives, Risks, and Instabilities," Papers 2106.06389, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2021.
    4. Massimo Bartoletti & James Hsin-yu Chiang & Alberto Lluch-Lafuente, 2020. "SoK: Lending Pools in Decentralized Finance," Papers 2012.13230, arXiv.org.
    5. Jiahua Xu & Yebo Feng, 2022. "Reap the Harvest on Blockchain: A Survey of Yield Farming Protocols," Papers 2210.04194, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    6. Simon Cousaert & Jiahua Xu & Toshiko Matsui, 2021. "SoK: Yield Aggregators in DeFi," Papers 2105.13891, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    7. Estelle Sterrett & Waylon Jepsen & Evan Kim, 2022. "Replicating Portfolios: Constructing Permissionless Derivatives," Papers 2205.09890, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    8. Lioba Heimbach & Eric G. Schertenleib & Roger Wattenhofer, 2023. "Short Squeeze in DeFi Lending Market: Decentralization in Jeopardy?," Papers 2302.04068, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sam M. Werner & Daniel Perez & Lewis Gudgeon & Ariah Klages-Mundt & Dominik Harz & William J. Knottenbelt, 2021. "SoK: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)," Papers 2101.08778, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    2. Teng Andrea Xu & Jiahua Xu & Kristof Lommers, 2022. "DeFi vs TradFi: Valuation Using Multiples and Discounted Cash Flow," Papers 2210.16846, arXiv.org.
    3. Raphael Auer & Bernhard Haslhofer & Stefan Kitzler & Pietro Saggese & Friedhelm Victor, 2023. "The Technology of Decentralized Finance (DeFi)," BIS Working Papers 1066, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Lioba Heimbach & Eric G. Schertenleib & Roger Wattenhofer, 2023. "Short Squeeze in DeFi Lending Market: Decentralization in Jeopardy?," Papers 2302.04068, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    5. Saengchote, Kanis, 2023. "Decentralized lending and its users: Insights from compound," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Marcin Wk{a}torek & Stanis{l}aw Dro.zd.z & Jaros{l}aw Kwapie'n & Ludovico Minati & Pawe{l} O'swik{e}cimka & Marek Stanuszek, 2020. "Multiscale characteristics of the emerging global cryptocurrency market," Papers 2010.15403, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    7. Şoiman, Florentina & Dumas, Jean-Guillaume & Jimenez-Garces, Sonia, 2023. "What drives DeFi market returns?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Sevic, Aleksandar & González-López, Isaac, 2022. "A preliminary assessment of the performance of DeFi cryptocurrencies in relation to other financial assets, volatility, and user-generated content," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    9. Conall Butler & Martin Crane, 2023. "Blockchain Transaction Fee Forecasting: A Comparison of Machine Learning Methods," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-26, May.
    10. Peplluis R. Esteva & Andrés El-Fakdi & Alberto Ballesteros-Rodríguez, 2023. "Invoice Discounting Using Kelly Criterion by Automated Market Makers-like Implementations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-37, March.
    11. Dominik Metelski & Janusz Sobieraj, 2022. "Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Projects: A Study of Key Performance Indicators in Terms of DeFi Protocols’ Valuations," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, November.
    12. Makridis, Christos A. & Fröwis, Michael & Sridhar, Kiran & Böhme, Rainer, 2023. "The rise of decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges: Evaluating the role of airdrops and governance tokens," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Yousaf, Imran & Jareño, Francisco & Esparcia, Carlos, 2022. "Tail connectedness between lending/borrowing tokens and commercial bank stocks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Estelle Sterrett & Waylon Jepsen & Evan Kim, 2022. "Replicating Portfolios: Constructing Permissionless Derivatives," Papers 2205.09890, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    15. Kanis Saengchote, 2022. "Decentralized lending and its users: Insights from Compound," Papers 2212.05734, arXiv.org.
    16. Lioba Heimbach & Eric Schertenleib & Roger Wattenhofer, 2023. "DeFi Lending During The Merge," Papers 2303.08748, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    17. Teng Andrea Xu & Jiahua Xu, 2022. "A Short Survey on Business Models of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Protocols," Papers 2202.07742, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    18. Hugo Inzirillo & Stanislas de Quenetain, 2022. "Managing Risk in DeFi Portfolios," Papers 2205.14699, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    19. Massimo Bartoletti & James Hsin-yu Chiang & Alberto Lluch-Lafuente, 2020. "SoK: Lending Pools in Decentralized Finance," Papers 2012.13230, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2009.13235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.