Related papers: Toxic Liquidation Spirals
Atomic swaps enable the transfer of value between the cryptocurrencies of various blockchains without the need to trust an intermediary. In this paper, we propose the concept of atomic loans, which utilize atomic swap technology to allow…
Lending within decentralized finance (DeFi) has facilitated over \$100 billion of loans since 2020. A long-standing inefficiency in DeFi lending protocols such as Aave is the use of static pricing mechanisms for loans. These mechanisms have…
We derive a slippage-aware toxicity condition for on-chain liquidations executed via a constant-product automated market maker (CP-AMM). For a fixed (constant) liquidation incentive $i$, the familiar toxicity frontier $\nu < 1/(1+i)$…
We study liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), identifying factors at the platform, blockchain, token pair, and liquidity pool levels with predictive power for market depth metrics. We introduce the v2 counterfactual spread metric, a…
Stablecoins face an unresolved trilemma of balancing decentralization, stability, and regulatory compliance. We present a hybrid stabilization protocol that combines crypto-collateralized reserves, algorithmic futures contracts, and…
Within just four years, the blockchain-based Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem has accumulated a peak total value locked (TVL) of more than 253 billion USD. This surge in DeFi's popularity has, unfortunately, been accompanied by many…
Crowdfunding platforms face high transaction fees, need for more transparency, and trust deficits. These issues deter contributors and entrepreneurs from effectively leveraging crowdfunding for innovation and growth. Blockchain technology…
Two MEV builders now produce nearly 80\% of Ethereum blocks. Block builders have the ability to reorder transactions on the blockchain in a way that can be harmful to participants. We estimate they would pay in the aggregate nearly \$14…
In Ethereum, the practice of verifying the validity of the passed addresses is a common practice, which is a crucial step to ensure the secure execution of smart contracts. Vulnerabilities in the process of address verification can lead to…
We analyze the time series of four major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple) before the digital market crash at the end of 2017 - beginning 2018. We introduce a methodology that combines topological data analysis with…
This paper studies the effects of unexpected changes in US monetary policy on digital asset returns. We use event study regressions and find that monetary policy surprises negatively affect BTC and ETH, the two largest digital assets, but…
Lending pools are decentralized applications which allow mutually untrusted users to lend and borrow crypto-assets. These applications feature complex, highly parametric incentive mechanisms to equilibrate the loan market. This complexity…
Maximal Extractable Value, or MEV, remains a structural threat to blockchain fairness because a block producer can often observe pending transactions and unilaterally decide their ordering or inclusion. Existing mitigations hide transaction…
While catastrophic attacks on Ethereum persist, vulnerability research remains fixated on implementation-level smart contract bugs, creating a gap between academic understanding of vulnerabilities and the root causes of high-impact,…
Arbitrage can arise from the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from a difference in its price. This work systematically reviews arbitrage opportunities between Automated Market Makers…
Existing disk-based database systems largely fall into two categories -- they either provide very high performance but few guarantees, or expose the transaction abstraction satisfying the full ACID guarantees at the cost of lower…
The long-term success of cryptocurrencies largely depends on the incentive compatibility provided to the validators. Bribery attacks, facilitated trustlessly via smart contracts, threaten this foundation. This work introduces, implements,…
Sanctioning blockchain addresses has become a common regulatory response to malicious activities. However, enforcement on permissionless blockchains remains challenging due to complex transaction flows and sophisticated fund-obfuscation…
Several recent proposals implicitly or explicitly suggest making use of randomized transaction ordering within a block to mitigate centralization effects and to improve fairness in the Ethereum ecosystem. However, transactions and blocks…
Blockchains, and specifically smart contracts, have promised to create fair and transparent trading ecosystems. Unfortunately, we show that this promise has not been met. We document and quantify the widespread and rising deployment of…