Chaos Labs Correlated Asset Price Oracle Framework

[ChaosLabs]

Summary:

The goal of this framework is to set the relevant parameters concerning the correlated asset price oracle, referring to the expected annual growth of a correlated asset (maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent), such that we can deter against unexpected, artificial inflation in the underlying staking rate. For example, if an EOA is actively the source for an oracle feed being utilized on Aave, and a malicious actor gains access to this address in an attempt to artificially pump the exchange rate, this could lead to large amounts of bad debt. Thus, in setting this “upper bound” regarding the maximum expected growth of the asset over time, we can deter this event from theoretically occurring. In doing so, there are two discrete parameters to derive:

• maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent - Expected annual growth of the correlated asset. For example, wstETH growth annually vs ETH, in the form of the underlying ratio scaling over time, normalizing to an annual growth rate calculation. We will formally refer to this parameter as $r_{upper}$ throughout this piece.
• Frequency of ratioReferenceTime updates - The frequency of the times at which the annual equivalent growth in the asset ratio is measured from, to then calculate the aggregate APY.

Additionally, a new important parameter has been instituted within the implementation:

• MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY - How much “in the past” the ratio should be taken from, before the ratioReferenceTime. We elaborate on the exact motivation and derivation behind this parameter later on in this framework.

In this analysis, we aim to adequately tailor parameter values for respective assets, based on the maximum organic rate and rate volatility of the asset, negative market price deviations from the exchange rate, and granularity of reward distribution.

maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent:

Market Price Deviations Between the LST and the Underlying:

How are Organic Annual Rates Derived?

Motivation Behind MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY

Recommendations with Different MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY Values:

• note that the cbETH market utilizes the cbETH/ETH market price, not the underlying exchange rate. Thus, do not include the market price deviations.

• We observed an extreme spike in May 2023, due to a withdrawal bug. The rate collapsed to 0 for the two weeks during the bug fix as well. Thus, in our approximation, the rates returned are quite high, with the 14-day MA sufficiently smoothing this out.

Post-bug, we can see that the expected frequency and rate of streamlined rewards are quite consistent with minimal volatility.

MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY Recommendations:

ratioReferenceTime Update Frequency:

Given our derivations above, whereby we parameterize according to the MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY, there is no theoretical risk of frequent ratioReferenceTime updates. However, on the contrary, a lagging ratioReferenceTime during an organic rate spike would be suboptimal. Therefore, we recommend a monthly update frequency, as it allows us a reasonable amount of time to realize an uptick in the staking rate trend while defending against stark manipulation.

Stablecoins:

As there is no expected growth in the underlying asset to approximate, the only parameter in need of setting is the price cap, which we will call $c_{upper}$. We elaborate on this element below.

LUSD:

All other Stablecoins (USDC/USDT/DAI Cross-chain Wrappers, etc):

Recommendations

Ethereum

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
rETH	7 days	monthly	7.5%	N/A
cbETH	7 days	monthly	8.10%	N/A
sDAI	7 days	monthly	10.15%, subject to native governance	underlying DAI
sFRAX (for future reference)	7 days	monthly	7.1%, subject to native governance	N/A
LUSD	N/A	N/A	N/A	10%
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDT	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
DAI	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
crvUSD	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
FRAX	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Aribturm

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
rETH	7 days	monthly	7.5%	N/A
LUSD	N/A	N/A	N/A	10%
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDC.e	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDT	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
FRAX	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDC.e	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Optimism

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
rETH	7 days	monthly	7.5%	N/A
LUSD	N/A	N/A	N/A	10%
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDC.e	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDT	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
sUSD	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
DAI	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
EURS	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Polygon

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
MaticX	14 days	monthly	7.98%	N/A
stMATIC	14 days	monthly	8.85%	N/A
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDC.e	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDT	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
agEUR	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
DAI	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Avalanche

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
sAVAX	14 days	monthly	8.25%	N/A
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDT	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
DAI.e	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
FRAX	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Metis

Asset	Price Cap
m.USDC	4%
m.USDT	4%
m.DAI	4%

Base

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
cbETH	7 days	monthly	8.10%	N/A
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
USDbC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

Gnosis

Asset	MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY	ratioReferenceTime	maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent	Price Cap
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A
USDC	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
sDAI	7 days	monthly	10.15%, subject to native governance	underlying DAI
EURe	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%
xDAI	N/A	N/A	N/A	4%

BNB

Asset	Price Cap
USDT	4%
USDC	4%
FDUSD	4%

[ChaosLabs]

Recommendation Update:
Our original analysis assumed that cbETH would not be using the underlying exchange rate to price the LST, as it is priced according to the market price today. However, with the integration of CAPO, cbETH is expected to be using the exchange rate.
Thus, we have updated our recommendation for maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent for cbETH from 6.75% to 8.1%, accounting for historical market price deviations.

[Gauntlet]

Specification

Gauntlet and Chaos have aligned on joint recommendations for CAPO parameters.

The CAPO parameter recommendations are consistent across chains for each asset, leading us to present these recommendations on a per-asset basis while noting the chains where each asset is listed. The total number of LST recommendations across chains amounts to 17, and for stablecoins, it totals 38, culminating in 55 CAPO recommendations altogether.

LSTs

Asset	Minimum Snapshot Delay	Ratio Reference Time	Max Yearly Ratio Growth Percent	Price Cap	Ethereum	Arbitrum	Optimism	Polygon	Avalanche	Gnosis	Base	Metis	BNB	Total Chains
wstETH	7 days	monthly	8.72%	N/A	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓			6
rETH	7 days	monthly	7.46%	N/A	✓	✓	✓							3
sDAI	7 days	monthly	10.15%	underlying DAI	✓					✓				2
cbETH	7 days	monthly	7.04%	N/A	✓						✓			2
sFRAX	7 days	monthly	6.9%	N/A	✓									1
MaticX	14 days	monthly	7.98%	N/A				✓						1
stMATIC	14 days	monthly	8.85%	N/A				✓						1
sAVAX	14 days	monthly	7.4%	N/A					✓					1

Stablecoins

Asset	Price Cap	Ethereum	Arbitrum	Optimism	Polygon	Avalanche	Gnosis	Base	Metis	BNB	Total Chains
USDC	2%	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓	8
USDT	2%	✓	✓	✓	✓					✓	6
USDC.e	2%		✓	✓	✓						3
m.USDC	2%								✓		1
m.USDT	2%								✓		1
agEUR	2%				✓						1
EURS	2%			✓							1
USDbC	2%							✓			1
EURe	2%						✓				1
FDUSD	2%									✓	1
DAI	3%	✓		✓	✓						3
m.DAI	3%								✓		1
xDAI	3%						✓				1
DAI.e	3%					✓					1
FRAX	4%	✓	✓			✓					3
LUSD	4%	✓	✓	✓							3
sUSD	4%			✓							1
crvUSD	4%	✓									1

LST Analysis

maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent

sAVAX

MaticX

stMatic

Using the Methodology above

For wstETH, cbETH, sDAI, sFRAX:

For assets with varying degree of reward distribution/or having history of highly volatile APY (eg -rETH, sAVAX, stMatic, and MaticX) :

ratioReferenceTime Update Frequency

We recommend setting the ratioReferenceTime time frequency to monthly. We also note that reducing the frequency of ratioReferenceTime updates to 21 days equally captures the upticks of organic growth rate while not breaching the maxYearlyGrowthRatioPercent, this could be translate for better UX for users on the platform in cases of sustained organic increase in APYs.

wstETH

rETH

cbETH

sFrax

Stablecoin Analysis

Setting price caps for stablecoins comes with both advantages and disadvantages.

Setting a stablecoin’s price cap to 0% can cause utilization spikes during short-lived upward depegs. However, the majority of stablecoin suppliers do not borrow against their supply, and therefore high utilization should not significantly hinder those liquidations. Additionally, the vast majority of volatile asset suppliers borrow stablecoins against their positions. An increase in the price of the stablecoins during a market downturn could trigger more liquidations, which would add risk and negatively impact UX if the upward depeg is short-lived.

Conversely, stablecoins like LUSD, which have traded at a 4-5% premium for extended periods, may not benefit from a 0% cap. Mispricing an asset away from its market value can deter liquidators, a crucial consideration for maintaining market stability. Granted, if the community anticipates that certain stablecoins will persistently trade at a premium, it might be prudent to freeze and potentially delist these to safeguard against long-term risks and enhance asset quality on platforms like Aave.

Given these considerations, for fiat-backed stablecoins, expected to maintain a peg close to $1, we’ve set a 2% price cap, reflecting their lower risk of significant long-term depegging. Non-fiat-backed stablecoins have a 4% cap due to their higher volatility. DAI, with its substantial PSM buffer, is allocated a 3% cap, recognizing its intermediate stability profile.

[ChaosLabs]

Capo Update

After discussing with BGD, we have collectively determined that the current CAPO maxYearlyRatioGrowthPercent recommendations should be further optimized to allow a larger buffer. As such, our adjusted formula is the following:

Where:

r_{{upper}{init}}* is the initial r{upper} value, and sigma{\hat r} is the “day-on-day” daily standard deviation over the last year.

This component is added to account for the frequency of reward distribution practices and its theoretical effect on smoothed exchange rates if the frequency of distribution is altered; for assets with 14-day MINIMUM_SNAPSHOT_DELAY, we add the 3-day aggregate daily SD as the additional term.

Asset	Initial Value	Adjusted Value
wstETH	8.72%	9.68%
rETH	7.46%	9.3%
cbETH	7.04%	8.12%
stMATIC	8.85%	10.45%
sfrxETH		16%
stEUR		9.26%
sAVAX	7.4%	10.1%
MaticX	7.98%	10.2%

[ChaosLabs]

We would like to add our recommendation to set MAI Correlated Asset Price Oracle parameters to a Price Cap of 4% as other stablecoins, especially given its E-Mode status.
Given the volatility on the rate of sDAI we will introduce CAPO recommendations for it at a later date.

To summarize the recommendations above for the Correlated Asset Price Oracle Framework: