02 — Stablecoin or LST Depeg

Trigger: A stablecoin or liquid-staking token you issue, integrate, or hold materially in treasury is trading below its expected peg. Material = >0.5% sustained for >30 minutes, or >2% at any point.

First 30 minutes

Depegs propagate fast. The window between “the chart looks weird” and “the community has decided what’s happening” is 30 minutes maximum.

1. Confirm the depeg is real, not a thin-liquidity flicker. Cross-check on three liquidity sources (e.g., Curve + Uniswap + a CEX pair). A two-minute wick on one DEX isn’t a depeg.
2. Open the hotline. “[ASSET] depeg observed. Magnitude: [X bps]. Duration: [Y min]. Probable cause: [if known, brief].”
3. Identify the causal narrative if possible. Reserves issue? Oracle problem? Redemption pressure? Smart-contract bug? Whale liquidation? Each implies a different statement.
4. Decide whether to engage redemption mechanism (if you’re the issuer). This is treasury’s call, not marketing’s — but marketing has to know what’s about to happen so the public statement matches the action.
5. Convene the war room. Particularly: treasury, risk, comms, counsel, support.
6. Brief support. Volume will spike within 60 minutes. Script: “We are monitoring [ASSET]. The peg mechanism is [STATUS]. Updates at [time].”
7. Open communication with major exchanges and integrators. They will see the move; pre-empting a frantic call from a CEX listing manager beats waiting for one.
8. Decide spokesperson. For depegs, ideally a treasury or risk lead — not the founder. The audience is sophisticated; they want to hear from someone who understands the mechanism.

Holding statement template

Ship within 2 hours — depegs move faster than hacks.

[TIMESTAMP — UTC]
      
      [ISSUER] is aware that [ASSET] is currently trading at approximately [PRICE] / [PEG TARGET]
      on [VENUE / AGGREGATE OF VENUES].
      
      [REDEMPTION MECHANISM STATUS — e.g., "Direct redemption at [RATE] remains available to verified
      holders" / "Redemptions are [PAUSED / DELAYED / NORMAL]"].
      
      Reserves backing [ASSET] are held in [BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF RESERVE STRUCTURE — without disclosing
      sensitive operational detail]. Latest attestation: [LINK TO RESERVE ATTESTATION OR DASHBOARD].
      
      We are monitoring conditions and will publish a fuller update at [SPECIFIC TIME, USUALLY 4-6h OUT].
      
      — [Name, Role]
      

What this template deliberately doesn’t say: - “The peg will return shortly.” You don’t know. - “Reserves are 100% safe.” Don’t make absolute claims; point to attestations instead. - A specific percentage or price the asset will return to. - An attribution of cause unless you’re certain.

Stakeholder cascade

Do

• Point to mechanisms, not promises. “Redemptions remain open at $1.00 to verified holders” beats “the peg will hold.”
• Publish reserve attestations prominently. If you have them, link them. If you don’t, this is the moment that exposes that gap.
• Update on a fast schedule. Hourly for the first 6 hours of an active depeg, regardless of severity.
• Coordinate with major holders. If a market maker is willing to provide arbitrage support, that buys you time.
• Be specific about reserve composition. Vague reassurance reads as evasion in this category.

Don’t

• Don’t promise the peg will hold. Even if you believe it; even if it does. You can’t guarantee market behavior.
• Don’t blame “FUD” or “shorts.” It reads as defensive and tone-deaf. Address the substance.
• Don’t pause redemptions without explaining why. A pause without explanation accelerates the depeg dramatically.
• Don’t stop publishing reserve attestations during the crisis. Continuity here is reassuring.
• Don’t let the founder tweet emotionally. Founders tweeting “we got this” during a depeg is the meme image of a failed stablecoin.

Variants

Algorithmic / undercollateralized depeg. Different category — the mechanism is the cause. Statement should describe the rebalancing protocol’s status and the path back to peg, not reserves. Be especially careful about claims of mechanism robustness.

Brief technical depeg (oracle stale, MEV, single-DEX wick). If the depeg is technical and resolves within 30 minutes, you may not need a full statement — but a single tweet acknowledging the awareness builds trust for the next time.

Sympathy depeg. When a competitor stablecoin depegs and yours wobbles in sympathy, the statement should explicitly differentiate your reserve structure from theirs without naming them. “[ASSET]’s reserves are held in [STRUCTURE]; this is structurally different from algorithmic stablecoin models.”

Liquid-staking-token depeg. LST depegs (e.g., stETH/ETH) often reflect liquidity mismatches, not insolvency. Statement should distinguish exchange rate from redemption value, since the underlying ETH is still recoverable through the protocol.

24-hour follow-up

• Post-event analysis: what caused the move, what mechanisms responded, what the reserve picture looked like at peak stress. Publish within 5 days.
• Review reserve disclosure cadence. If the crisis exposed gaps, increase attestation frequency or detail.
• Brief major integrators with the post-event view; they’ll need it for their own risk reporting.
• Regulatory follow-up filings as required (most stablecoin regimes mandate post-event reporting).
• Internal retro: did the redemption mechanism behave as documented? Did reserve liquidity hold? What changes?

Cross-references: 01 — Hack, 06 — Partner Blow-Up, 08 — Withdrawal Pause, 10 — Token Crash.