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Collateral Manipulation

Definition

Collateral manipulation involves actions taken to artificially alter the perceived value or availability of assets used as security in financial transactions, particularly within decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. This practice aims to exploit vulnerabilities in smart contract logic or market mechanisms to gain an undue advantage, often leading to unfair liquidations or protocol instability. Such manipulation can involve actions like flash loans to temporarily distort asset prices or flooding liquidity pools with illiquid assets to trigger cascading failures. It represents a significant security concern for the integrity of DeFi systems.