Background
On 15 August 2026 at 23:33 UTC, borrowing on the lisUSD market on the BNB Chain Core Pool was paused by the Deviation Sentinel, an automated check that compares each market’s oracle price against the price quoted on-chain. It had detected a difference between the two. Venus subsequently confirmed that the fault lay with the oracle price, not the DEX price. That prompted a closer look at the market. For the reasons below, Venus intends to deprecate it.
1. The oracle reported a price 8.9% below the market
At block 116,169,118, 23:33:30 UTC, the lisUSD oracle price fell from $0.9975 to $0.9095 in a single block.
Nothing happened on-chain. The PancakeSwap StableSwap lisUSD/USDT pool held 567,535 lisUSD against 222,113 USDT before, during and after, and the price it quoted never moved.
| Oracle | DEX | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before — 23:33:30 | $0.997509 | $0.998558 | −0.10% |
| At the pause — 23:33:35 | $0.909457 | $0.998558 | −8.92% |
| After — 16 Aug 00:06:00 | $0.997548 | $0.998558 | −0.10% |
The Deviation Sentinel paused borrowing five seconds after the incorrect price appeared, and that price remained in effect for 32.5 minutes. The DEX did not move; the oracle did.
2. lisUSD is priced from a single feed, and no second feed exists
Venus prices assets through a Resilient Oracle, which can hold three sources per asset: a main feed, a pivot feed to cross-check it, and a fallback. For lisUSD, only the main feed is configured. The pivot and fallback slots are empty.
A single incorrect price therefore passes straight through. There is nothing to cross-check it against, and nothing to price the market from if that feed stops publishing. That is what happened on 15 August.
Venus has raised the incident with the feed provider. But no alternative lisUSD feed is available on BNB Chain today, and on-chain liquidity is not deep enough to build a reliable pivot from. However the incident is resolved, the market would remain on a single source. That is not a risk Venus is willing to carry on a Core Pool market.
3. Inactive market
lisUSD is one of the smallest markets on the Core Pool. It holds $356,695 of supply — 0.02% of the Core Pool’s $1.71 billion. Borrows stand at $271,211, or 0.06% of all Core Pool borrowing.
Activity is correspondingly thin. Over the last 90 days the market saw 293 transactions in total, from 68 distinct addresses — an average of 3.3 transactions a day. Only 12 addresses deposited into it over those three months.
The positions that remain are small. 76 addresses currently carry a lisUSD borrow; 45 of them owe less than $1,000, and the median borrower owes $517. On the supply side a single address holds 99.6% of the market, and every other supplier combined holds about 1,300 lisUSD.
lisUSD is also barely used as collateral. Ten addresses have enabled it and hold a balance, totalling 61.5 lisUSD — about $61, which supports roughly $31 of borrowing across the entire protocol.
4. Most of the supply has already left
In the days after the pause, supply fell 65%.
| Date | Supply (lisUSD) | Borrows (lisUSD) | Cash (lisUSD) | Utilisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 August 2026 | 1,022,390 | 356,677 | 665,713 | 34.9% |
| 21 August 2026 | 369,317 | 328,485 | 40,834 | 88.9% |
| 25 August 2026 | 357,226 | 271,615 | 85,611 | 76.0% |
A single address redeemed 666,849 lisUSD on 20 August, which accounts for most of the fall. What remains is 357,226 lisUSD of supply against 271,615 lisUSD of borrows, leaving 85,611 lisUSD of cash. Suppliers can withdraw up to that cash balance; beyond it, withdrawals depend on borrowers repaying.
Summary
For those reasons, Venus intends to deprecate the lisUSD market on the BNB Chain Core Pool. The wind-down will follow the four-phase process already adopted by the community:
- Phase 1 — supply cap, borrow cap and collateral factor set to zero. No new supply, no new borrowing.
- Phase 2, two weeks later — reserve factor raised to 50%. This reduces the supply yield; it does not change the borrow rate.
- Phase 3, four weeks later — reserve factor raised to 100%, alongside an interest rate curve designed to encourage repayment.
- Phase 4, six weeks later — review of any remaining positions.
None of these steps force-liquidates an existing position. lisUSD backs only about $31 of borrowing today, so setting its collateral factor to zero has no material effect on any borrower.
Repayment is what frees up cash for the remaining suppliers. Borrowers can repay at any time — repayment is not restricted by the pause or by any step above — and repaying before Phase 3 avoids the higher borrow rate it introduces.
Community feedback is welcome before the first VIP is submitted.