Curve Finance’s lending data for the first half of 2026 shows that stressed borrowing positions can remain active for days or weeks rather than immediately closing once they enter liquidation. Curve recorded 704 Soft Liquidation episodes with a median duration of 14.5 days, illustrating how its LLAMMA architecture turns liquidation into a gradual process rather than a single forced-sale event.
According to Curve’s official H1 2026 lending analysis, the 75th percentile for Liquidation Protection duration reached 38.9 days, while several of the longest-running episodes were still active when the dataset was captured. The analysis covered 704 episodes involving 602 unique borrower addresses.
LLAMMA Replaces the Liquidation Cliff
Curve Lending uses the Lending-Liquidating AMM Algorithm, or LLAMMA, to manage positions as collateral prices move through predefined liquidation bands. Instead of immediately seizing and permanently selling collateral when a threshold is crossed, LLAMMA progressively converts collateral into the borrowed asset while keeping the loan open. If prices reverse through the bands, conversions can also move in the opposite direction.
Of the observed episodes, 476 began during the first half of 2026 and involved 402 borrower addresses. Those H1 episodes represented approximately $69.8 million in episode-level collateral exposure, giving Curve a substantial production dataset for examining how Soft Liquidation behaves during periods of market volatility and liquidity stress.
Curve also independently reviewed 12 high-value episodes representing $15.2 million in tracked collateral. In all 12 cases, the protocol confirmed that collateral was actively being converted inside LLAMMA, supporting the conclusion that the observed protection periods reflected actual Soft Liquidation activity rather than inactive positions that had merely crossed a price threshold.
Longer Protection Does Not Eliminate Losses
The additional time can give borrowers opportunities to repay debt, add collateral or otherwise manage positions before Hard Liquidation. Liquidation Protection does not, however, guarantee recovery or preserve the original economic value of the collateral. Borrowers can still incur AMM fees, conversion and rebalancing losses, accrued interest and path-dependent losses while a position remains inside the liquidation range.
That distinction matters when interpreting the H1 figures. A long Soft Liquidation period demonstrates that a position remained manageable and open, not that the borrower ultimately exited without a loss. Curve itself argues that liquidation performance should therefore be evaluated using borrower response time and economic costs alongside traditional measures such as protocol solvency, execution reliability and bad debt.
The data nevertheless demonstrates a different operational model from lending systems built around immediate collateral seizure. LLAMMA introduces time as an additional variable in liquidation management, allowing positions to evolve while collateral is gradually rebalanced. The next useful measure will be final borrower outcomes across those episodes, including recovery rates and total economic costs, rather than duration alone.