Benqi Lending
BENQI Markets combines a cross-collateral core market with isolated Avalanche ecosystem markets. DefiLlama’s top-level snapshot recorded about $84.1M on 2026-08-14, below the size floor. Avalanche is approved with limits, but individual review of a client-ready stablecoin market and its withdrawable cash does not open until the protocol clears that floor.
- TVL sustained above the retired TVL threshold for 30 days
Watched nightly: a warning on its venues or files, or a cited document that changes, reopens the memo. The first confirmation is due 2026-11-15.
The research file
Mechanism
Suppliers fund pooled markets and earn interest based on use; borrowers pledge excess collateral. Core assets share a Comptroller risk domain, while ecosystem markets isolate long-tail collateral and generally permit only USDC borrowing. qiToken redemption depends on the cash left in the relevant pool.
Control and operating evidence
The BENQI core team currently adjusts collateral, reserve, close-factor, liquidation-incentive and interest-rate settings while describing future decentralization. Chaos Labs provides risk work, BENQI has published a dual Chaos/Chainlink oracle design, and BENQI lists audits from Halborn, Certora and others. These controls do not approve a specific market.
Exit consequences
High use can leave too little cash in a pool for suppliers even when its accounting value remains intact. Oracle error, depeg, bridge exposure and failed liquidation can create bad debt. Borrowers must repay or add collateral when health falls below set levels; third-party liquidators can seize collateral with an incentive.
Why the class rule decides
The reproducible top-level snapshot remains below the size floor; adding currentChainTvls can count market components twice and does not prove thirty days above the floor. Size therefore decides. Individual review reopens after sustained scale for a named USDC market, including utilization stress, collateral and oracle mapping, admin authorities, bad-debt history and address-specific exit analysis.
Research status
This is a capacity-unproven record for Benqi Lending, not a quality rejection or approval. Reported TVL says how big the venue is, not what the client owns, who can change the rules, or how a position exits at a proposed size. The individual review opens when the protocol clears the size floor.
Sources
The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.
- BENQI Docs — market structure · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
Supports: core markets, isolated markets, USDC borrowing, risk domains - BENQI Docs — protocol parameters · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
Supports: team control, collateral factor, reserve factor, utilization rates - BENQI Docs — health and liquidation · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
Supports: health threshold, close factor, liquidation incentive - BENQI Docs — risks and audits · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
Supports: audit record, smart-contract risk, liquidation risk, Chaos Labs - DefiLlama — BENQI Lending survey record · secondary · accessed 2026-08-14
Supports: survey TVL, Avalanche deployment, lending category
Inherited controls
The research above describes the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The layer with the most administrative power sets the position’s effective control; that describes control, not quality or suitability.
| Chain | Verdict | Control | Control constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Approved with limits | Governed, no freeze | no party can freeze or seize C-Chain funds, but one vendor writes the only production client and Messari measured over a third of stake hosted on AWS. |