Liquidation & recovery
Docs · Loan lifecycle

Liquidation & recovery

The pending window, what a liquidation transfers, and recovery.

When the mark falls to a funded tick, the loans drawn against that depth enter pending liquidation. Nothing is sold — there is no auction, no keeper race, no slippage cascade. The state machine is:

ACTIVE ── mark reaches tick ──▶ PENDING (window = pending param) PENDING ── price recovers in window ──▶ ACTIVE // right returns PENDING ── move holds through window ──▶ TITLE // lender takes the asset
  • Pending — the borrower’s right to the collateral is held, not sold. The position is frozen against the committed price.
  • Recovery — if the mark recovers within the window, the right returns to the borrower and the loan continues unchanged.
  • Title transfer — if the move persists, the lender receives the collateral at the price they committed to. No forced sale means no fire-sale externality for the rest of the market.

A healthy market therefore needs a dependable way for a lender to exit an acquired asset. There are two:

  • Redeem at intrinsic valueHold the asset and redeem it for what it is worth — RWAs, LSTs, veNFTs. No buyer has to show up.
  • Sell into a deep marketSell into existing depth — WETH, BTC, and other liquid assets. The exit is the market that was already there.