Understanding Liquidation Risk in DeFi
Liquidation in DeFi is the forced sale of a borrower's collateral when it no longer adequately covers their debt, protecting lenders from bad debt. On lending protocols like AAVE, Morpho, and Euler, liquidation triggers when health factor reaches 1.0. On perpetual exchanges like Hyperliquid, it triggers when margin falls below the maintenance requirement. Liquidations also carry a penalty fee. Otomato monitors both lending and perps positions so you can act before liquidation, not after.
What Triggers a Liquidation
Liquidation occurs when the value of your collateral falls below a certain threshold relative to your debt. Different protocols measure this differently:
- Lending protocols (AAVE, Morpho, Euler): Health factor drops to 1.0 or below
- Perpetual exchanges (Hyperliquid): Margin ratio falls below maintenance requirement
When a liquidation is triggered, part or all of your collateral is sold to repay your debt. You lose the liquidated collateral plus a liquidation penalty.
Liquidation Risk on Lending Protocols
On AAVE, Morpho, and Euler, you deposit collateral and borrow assets against it. Your position becomes at risk when:
- Your collateral asset drops in price
- Your borrowed asset increases in price
- Interest accrues and increases your debt
- A stablecoin you use as collateral depegs
The health factor metric tracks how close you are to liquidation. Monitoring it continuously is impractical, which is why alerts matter.
Liquidation Risk on Perpetual Exchanges
On Hyperliquid, you trade with leverage. Your position has a liquidation price based on your entry, leverage, and margin. If the market moves against you far enough, your position gets liquidated.
Higher leverage means a smaller price movement can trigger liquidation. A 10x long position on ETH can be liquidated by a 10% price drop (minus fees and funding).
Why Timely Alerts Matter
Liquidation can happen quickly during volatile markets. The difference between a 5% loss from adding collateral and a 15%+ loss from liquidation depends on knowing early enough to act.
Checking dashboards manually is unreliable. You might be asleep, at work, or simply forget. By the time you check, it might be too late.
Otomato Liquidation Alerts
Otomato detects your positions on lending protocols and perpetual exchanges. When your position approaches liquidation, you receive an alert with:
- Which position is at risk
- Current health factor or margin level
- How close you are to liquidation
The alert arrives while you still have time to add collateral, repay debt, or close the position. No dashboard required.
Monitor your liquidation risk
Get alerts before liquidation, not after. Works with AAVE, Morpho, Euler, and Hyperliquid.
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