Analysis: 3% token volatility triggers $36 million Ethereum DeFi liquidation

According to CoinDesk, a price fluctuation of about 3% in tokens on the lending platform Morpho triggered approximately $36 million in liquidations. The incident was caused by a wallet that bought a large amount of the yield token YT-reUSD issued by Pendle, pushing the implied annual yield up to 20% before quickly selling it, resulting in a price drop of about 3% for the corresponding principal token PT-reUSD.

Previously, some traders deposited PT-reUSD into Morpho, borrowed stablecoin USDC, and then bought more PT-reUSD in a circular operation, leaving less than 3% of liquidation buffer space for leveraged positions. Morpho uses oracle prices, taking the lower value between the average trading price of PT-reUSD over the past 15 minutes and a fixed path that gradually approaches $1 at maturity. Liquidation is triggered when the market price falls below this curve. Pendle stated that the price source configuration is correct and operates as designed.

Steakhouse Financial, responsible for managing the related lending market, stated that its lenders in the treasury were unaffected, with no bad debts incurred, and the proceeds from the liquidation were sufficient to repay the loans. After withdrawing funds during the investigation, Steakhouse reinvested, and the underlying asset reUSD was unaffected.