Recursive borrowing — also called “looping” — is a leveraged yield strategy in DeFi lending protocols where a user deposits an asset as collateral, borrows a portion of that collateral’s value in the same or a related asset, redeposits the borrowed amount as additional collateral, and repeats this cycle multiple times to build a leveraged position far larger than the original deposit, multiplying both the yield earned on the supply side and the interest paid on the borrow side, while also exponentially compressing the health factor margin and dramatically increasing liquidation risk if the underlying asset’s price falls or borrowing rates spike. The strategy exploits the arithmetic of collateralization ratios: if an asset has a 75% LTV, each loop adds 75% of the previous loop’s value, creating a geometric series that converges to a finite maximum leverage.
The Math of Looping
With a maximum LTV of 75%, the theoretical maximum leverage multiplier from infinite loops is:
$$text{Max Leverage} = frac{1}{1 – text{LTV}} = frac{1}{1 – 0.75} = 4times$$
In practice, users stop before the limit to preserve a safety margin:
| Loops | Collateral | Debt | Net Leverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (start) | $10,000 | $0 | 1× |
| 1 | $17,500 | $7,500 | 1.75× |
| 2 | $23,125 | $13,125 | 2.31× |
| 3 | $27,344 | $17,344 | 2.73× |
| 5 | $32,373 | $22,373 | 3.24× |
| ∞ | $40,000 | $30,000 | 4× max |
Each loop deposits the newly borrowed amount as additional collateral, amplifying the total collateral and total debt by the same proportional amount.
Why Users Do This
Yield Amplification
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Example: stETH earns 4% APR on Aave supply side
Borrowing ETH at 2% APR to buy more stETH
Without looping: $10,000 stETH → $400/year
With 3× leverage: $30,000 stETH exposure → $1,200/year supply yield
Less borrow costs: $20,000 debt × 2% = $400/year
Net yield on original $10,000: ~$800/year = ~8% net APR
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This works when supply yield > borrow cost, which holds for correlated assets (e.g., stETH/ETH where both move together and the ETH borrow rate is lower than stETH staking yield).
Point Farming
Basis Trades
Risks
Liquidation Risk (Primary Risk)
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Example (3× loop, 75% LTV):
Collateral: $27,344 stETH
Debt: $17,344 ETH
Liquidation threshold: collateral value must stay above debt / LTV
→ Liquidation if stETH falls to: $17,344 / 0.8 ≈ $21,680
→ That’s a ~21% stETH price drop from entry
Without leverage: same ETH/stETH price drop has no liquidation risk
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For correlated asset pairs (stETH/ETH), the risk is primarily the peg breaking — stETH trading below ETH value triggers liquidations even without an ETH price move.
Interest Rate Risk
Unwinding Complexity
Flash Loan-Assisted Looping
To avoid the gas cost and slippage of manual looping, sophisticated users use flash loans to enter and exit positions in a single transaction:
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Enter with flash loan:
- Flash borrow $30,000 ETH
- Deposit $40,000 total collateral (original $10K + $30K flash)
- Borrow $30,000 ETH against collateral
- Repay flash loan with borrowed ETH
→ Position opened in 1 transaction
Exit with flash loan:
- Flash borrow $17,344 ETH
- Repay entire debt → collateral released
- Withdraw $27,344 stETH, swap portion to ETH
- Repay flash loan
→ Position closed in 1 transaction
“`
Protocols like Aave’s native “Loop” and DeFi aggregators like DeFi Saver automate this.
Common Looping Strategies by Asset
| Strategy | Collateral | Borrow | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|---|
| stETH/ETH loop | stETH | ETH | stETH yield > ETH borrow rate |
| wstETH loop | wstETH | ETH | Same as above, non-rebasing |
| sUSDe/USDC loop | sUSDe (Ethena) | USDC | Funding rate yield > stablecoin borrow rate |
| WBTC loop | WBTC | USDC | Bullish BTC leverage |
| LST/LST loop | rETH | wstETH | Spread between two LSTs |
History
- 2020: Loop strategies emerge during DeFi Summer as yield farmers on Compound amplify COMP token rewards
- 2021: Looping becomes mainstream on Aave v2; stETH/ETH loops grow as Lido scales
- 2022: Celsius was reportedly using recursive borrowing strategies; collapse partly due to levered positions unwinding during bear market
- 2022: stETH depeg causes mass liquidations of stETH loop positions
- 2023–2024: Ethena’s sUSDe/USDC loop becomes one of the most popular strategies during high funding rate environment
- 2024–2025: Dedicated “looping” UIs (DeFi Saver, Instadapp, Summer.fi) make recursive borrowing accessible to retail users with one-click entry/exit