Dai Depeg Event

ETH crash caused liquidation cascade (Black Thursday)

moderateMarch 12, 2020 → March 19, 2020Duration: 168h

Peak Price

$1.100

10.0% from peg

Recovery Time

168h

Fully resolved

Severity

moderate

1-5% deviation

DAI Black Thursday Depeg (March 2020)

During the COVID-19 market crash of March 2020, ETH price dropped over 50% in a single day. This caused a massive liquidation cascade in MakerDAO.

March 12: ETH drops from ~$190 to ~$90. Gas prices spike.

March 13-15: DAI trades above $1.03-$1.10 as demand surged.

March 19: DAI gradually returns to peg after MakerDAO adds USDC as collateral.

~$8M in under-collateralized positions resulted in bad debt

MakerDAO added USDC as a collateral type

Led to improvements in MakerDAO's liquidation system