A trader on Aave, a decentralized liquidity protocol operating on multiple platforms, including Ethereum and OP Mainnet, has begun selling wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to repay outstanding debt, records on October 13 reveal. WBTC is a tokenized version of Bitcoin issued on Ethereum that allows holders to engage in decentralized finance (DeFi) activities.
Trader Selling WBTC To Repay Debt On Aave v2
According to Lookonchain data, the unidentified trader marked with address “0x47ab” borrowed roughly $8 million worth of multiple stablecoins, including USDC, USDT, and DAI, Maker’s stablecoin, on Aave v2 after depositing various assets, including WBTC, Maker (MKR), and Ethereum (ETH) worth approximately $11 million.
When writing, the health factor of borrowed assets stands at 1.09, teetering close to liquidation. According to Aave’s documents, the health factor is a metric that compares the safety of collateral and borrowed loans to the underlying value. Technically, the higher it is, the safer the funds are from liquidation. If the health factor exceeds $1, deposited collateral will be liquidated to borrow outstanding loans.
Aave is a popular decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol where token holders can choose to supply liquidity and earn passive income. At the same time, users can deposit collateral and borrow overcollateralized loans, which they can repay at any time, provided the health factor is around 1. Since loans are overcollateralized, the collateral is usually higher than the borrowed amount.
Volatile Bitcoin Prices To Blame?
As it is, the trader, Lookonchain shows, has started selling WBTC to repay outstanding debt. A big chunk of what the trader supplied is in WBTC, standing at 366.56 WBTC, worth roughly $9.1 million at spot rates.
However, considering market prices have fluctuated recently, the contraction has impacted the health factor, increasing the risk of collateral liquidation. To counter this, the trader sold 3 WBTC for roughly $80,000.
The address still owes Aave V2 approximately $8.08 million, mostly in USDT, at around $5 million. There are $3 million of USDC and around $368,000 of DAI. It is unclear whether the trader will seek to borrow more, especially if Bitcoin prices increase.
The address remains long on MKR, the governance token of the MakerDAO protocol; Uniswap’s UNI; Chainlink’s LINK; and Ethereum. Besides WBTC, the trader’s second-largest holding is in ETH, while the smallest is MKR. Ironically, MKR has been one of the top-performing assets, rallying by over 160% in H2 2023 alone. The token peaked at $1,600 in early October before cooling off to spot rates.
Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView
