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Blend treats “toxicity” as loop- or market-driven conditions that increase the risk of adverse selection, unstable borrow curves, or outsized price impact. We track four primary indicators and have a clear set of responses to mitigate these risks.

Indicators

  • Loop Flow Imbalance (LFI): This measures the absolute net loop flow over a rolling window, divided by the rolling volume. A high LFI can indicate one-sided market pressure. As a starting guardrail, an LFI greater than 0.20 is treated as a caution signal.
  • Utilization Volatility: This is the standard deviation of utilization over a rolling window. High volatility can signal instability in a lending market. The 80th percentile of the past year’s utilization volatility is used as a caution threshold.
  • Liquidity Concentration (LC): This is the ratio of looped assets to total vault assets. A high concentration increases the risk of a single strategy or asset. An LC greater than 0.40 is treated as a caution signal.
  • Price-Impact Proxy: This is the average realized slippage per unit notional in recent rebalances. A policy limit is set based on the last 3-6 months of executions (e.g., not exceeding the 90th percentile of observed slippage per unit size).

Responses

When multiple indicators persistently breach their thresholds, the system enters a “caution mode” with the following responses:
  • Tighten Tolerances & Raise Reserves: Rebalance triggers are tightened, and the vault reserve is increased to provide a larger buffer for user redemptions and strategy unwinds.
  • Cap New Loop Notionals: The system may cap the notional size of new loops or pause new loop initiations altogether to reduce risk.
  • Prefer Smaller, Batched Corrections: The system will favor smaller, more frequent corrective moves to avoid large, market-moving rebalances.
Caution mode triggers when multiple indicators breach thresholds persistently.

Monitoring Flow

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