Soft Liquidations Positions

Overview

Curve’s LLAMMA system contains a liquidation mechanism called soft liquidations. Once the collateral price reaches a certain point that puts the active band outside of the position’s band, the LLAMMA system begins to swap a portion of the collateral into crvUSD to maintain the health of the position. Positions in soft liquidations cannot make adjustments to their collateral and can only repay (fully or partially) their debt to exit soft liquidations or self-liquidate themselves entirely.

This Soft Liquidations Positions indicator tracks the ratio of positions that are currently in a soft liquidation status.

How can I use it?

Monitoring the percentage of positions in soft liquidations can be a leading indicator on whether the health of borrowers is beginning to deteriorate due to over exposure or poor market conditions. This can help borrowers determine if they will reduce their exposure due to hedge on potential incoming price volatility on their collateral. It is also important for users in LP positions exposed to crvUSD. Since positions that move from soft liquidations to hard liquidations will pull crvUSD out of circulation, liquidity can dry up in AMM pools and cause potential slippage for users trying to exit their LP.

The example chart above for WBTC shows many fluctuations on the percentage of positions in soft liquidations day over day. In general, this will be a common pattern for this chart as users might fall in and out of soft liquidations. A warning sign on this chart would be if the ratio of positions sees large rapid increases or sustained high levels of positions in soft liquidations. This could indicate a higher risk of hard liquidations occurring in the protocol. This chart pairs well with the Health Factor Distribution chart to determine the total balance of collateral in soft liquidations that is on the precipices of hard liquidations.