Curve Founder Nearly Liquidated During Weekend Crypto Crash

Michael Egorov – founder of the decentralized finance protocol Curve (CRV) – once again neared liquidation on his massive DeFi loan as the crypto market collectively plummeted over the weekend.

Curve Founder Loan In Danger

Bitcoin’s price has declined by 10% since Saturday, but altcoins like CRV were hit even harder, declining 30% from $0.58 to $0.43 over that same time. At its Saturday low, the token fell to just $0.38 – inches away from Egorov’s $0.37 liquidation point.

“The lending health rate of multiple positions has dropped to around 1.1 (if the CRV price continues to drop by 10% and there is no margin call or repayment, liquidation will begin),” wrote EmberCN to Twitter on Saturday, translated from Chinese.

As explained by Colin Wu, Egorov has supplied 371 million CRV tokens (~$156 million) to borrow $92.5 million in stablecoins using 5 addresses across 6 different DeFi lending platforms. To protect himself from liquidation, he must either top up his collateral base with more CRV, or pay off some of his debt.

Curve founder Michael Egorov also faced liquidation of his lending positions as CRV fell to $0.42. Michael mortgaged a total of 371m CRV (approximately $156 million) through 5 addresses on 6 lending platforms to borrow $92.54m in stablecoins. The health rate has dropped to around…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 14, 2024

In the past, Egorov has turned to several crypto heavyweights to raise cash and protect his position. In October, Tron founder Justin Sun bought 5 million CRV from Egorov at $0.40 each. A collection of other private purchases allowed Egorov to raise $15.8 million in over-the-counter (OTC) deals, at the cost of 39.2 million CRV.

Over-the-counter sales are useful for whales who may face slippage or move the market on their own when dealing with altcoins with little liquidity. According to CoinMarketCap, CRV has only processed $85 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours and has a market cap narrowly above $500 million.

For that same reason, Egorov and others are interested in protecting his loan: should his CRV be liquidated, the token price would likely plummet to unforeseen lows.

Liquidations Across Crypto

Had Egorov been liquidated, he wouldn’t have been alone. Data from Coinglass shows that crypto traders lost over $1.5 billion in liquidations between April 13 and 14 alone. Even short traders seeking to capitalize on the crash lost $273 million during intermittent volatility.

DeFi loans were no exception. Wu noted that decentralized exchanges saw $120 million in liquidations at the time.