FiRM FAQs
Answers to common questions about borrowing DOLA on FiRM. Questions are organized by topic—click any question to expand the answer. Can't find what you're looking for? Ask in Discord #support.
Getting Started
What do I need to borrow on FiRM?
You need three things: supported collateral (like wETH, wstETH, stablecoins, or governance tokens), ETH in your wallet for gas fees (budget $50-100 for multiple transactions), and DBR tokens to enable your borrowing position.
DBR (DOLA Borrowing Rights) represents your prepaid interest. You buy DBR upfront equivalent to your borrow amount times your intended duration. For example, borrowing 5,000 DOLA for 6 months requires 2,500 DBR. The FiRM interface guides you through acquiring DBR if you don't have it.
See our Getting Started with FiRM guide for a complete walkthrough.
How much can I borrow?
Your maximum borrow amount depends on your collateral type and deposit amount. Each asset has a collateral factor—for example, wstETH has an 82% collateral factor, meaning you can borrow up to $82 for every $100 of wstETH deposited.
The formula is: Maximum Borrow = Collateral Value × Collateral Factor
Example: Deposit $10,000 worth of wstETH with 82% collateral factor → Can borrow up to $8,200 DOLA.
However, borrowing at maximum capacity is risky. We recommend staying below 70% of your maximum to protect against price volatility. Check the FiRM Collateral Guide for collateral factors on all supported assets.
What does "fixed-rate" mean on FiRM?
Unlike protocols where interest rates change constantly based on supply and demand, FiRM offers true fixed-rate borrowing through the DBR mechanism. When you purchase DBR tokens, you're prepaying your borrowing costs at today's prices.
If DBR costs $0.02 each and you buy 1,000 DBR, you've locked in $20 of borrowing costs for borrowing 1,000 DOLA for one year—that's an effective 2% APR that won't change regardless of what happens to rates on other protocols.
This certainty allows for accurate budgeting and planning, similar to traditional fixed-rate mortgages but with the flexibility to extend, reduce, or close your position anytime.
Is there a minimum or maximum borrow amount?
Each market has a minimum debt threshold to prevent trivial positions that could clog liquidation mechanisms. Minimums typically range from $100 to $1,000 depending on the collateral type.
There's no universal maximum borrow amount—your limit is determined by your collateral value times the collateral factor. However, each market has a total debt ceiling set by governance that caps total borrows across all users. If a market is at its ceiling, you won't be able to borrow until debt is repaid or governance increases the ceiling.
Practically, gas fees make very small borrows inefficient. We recommend minimum borrows of $1,000-2,000 to ensure gas costs remain a small percentage of your position.
How long can I hold a FiRM loan?
Indefinitely. Unlike traditional fixed-rate loans with maturity dates, FiRM loans never expire. You can hold your position for days, months, years, or forever as long as you maintain sufficient DBR in your wallet and adequate collateral.
This is possible because DBR streams continuously. When your DBR balance gets low, simply buy more to extend your loan—no refinancing, no new terms, no disruption to your position.
Do I need to repay my loan by a certain date?
No. There are no maturity dates, deadlines, or forced repayment schedules. Repay whenever you want—tomorrow, next month, or years from now.
The only requirement is maintaining a positive DBR balance. If your DBR hits zero, forced replenishment occurs (expensive), but even this doesn't require repayment—it just adds DBR purchasing costs to your debt.
Collateral Questions
Which collateral should I use?
This depends on your goals, risk tolerance, and existing holdings:
For maximum capital efficiency: Use stablecoins like sUSDe or sUSDS (85-90% collateral factors). You can borrow nearly your entire deposit value with minimal liquidation risk.
For earning while borrowing: Choose wstETH (earns staking yields), Yearn vaults (earn strategy yields), or INV (earns anti-dilution + DBR rewards).
For maintaining governance rights: Only CVX, CRV, and INV retain voting power when deposited as FiRM collateral thanks to Personal Collateral Escrows.
For simplicity and liquidity: Start with wETH or wstETH—well-understood assets with deep liquidity and straightforward risk profiles.
See our FiRM Collateral Guide for detailed comparisons of all 20+ supported assets.
Can I use multiple types of collateral at once?
Yes. Each collateral type creates a separate isolated position in its own Personal Collateral Escrow (PCE). You can have simultaneous borrows against wstETH, INV, and sUSDe with complete independence between positions.
This isolation is a key security feature—if one market experiences problems, your other positions remain completely unaffected. Many sophisticated users diversify across multiple collateral types to reduce single-asset concentration risk.
What happens to my collateral's yields and rewards?
Your collateral continues earning yields while deposited:
wstETH continues earning Lido staking rewards (~3-4% APY)
Yearn vault tokens continue earning vault strategy yields
INV continues earning xINV anti-dilution rewards and DBR streaming rewards
CVX and CRV continue earning their respective staking rewards
This is unique to FiRM's Personal Collateral Escrow design. In most lending protocols, deposited assets stop earning their native rewards.
Can I withdraw my collateral while I have debt?
You can withdraw excess collateral that's not required to maintain your current debt. The FiRM interface shows your "available to withdraw" amount, which is any collateral beyond what's needed to maintain the minimum collateral ratio.
Example: You deposited $10,000 worth of wETH and borrowed $6,000 DOLA with an 82% collateral factor. Your minimum required collateral is $7,317 ($6,000 ÷ 0.82). You could withdraw up to $2,683 worth of wETH while maintaining your borrow position safely.
To withdraw all collateral, you must first repay your entire debt.
What if my collateral isn't supported?
FiRM currently supports 20+ collateral types, but if your preferred asset isn't available, you have several options:
Submit a governance proposal to add your desired collateral. New markets require thorough risk analysis and community approval, but governance regularly evaluates new collateral additions based on liquidity, oracle availability, and community demand.
Alternatively, swap your assets for supported collateral. For example, if you hold ETH derivatives not yet supported, you could swap to wstETH which is supported.
Check our Markets page for the current list of supported collateral and upcoming additions.
Can I change my collateral type after depositing?
Not directly. To switch collateral types, you must: repay your debt fully, withdraw your original collateral, acquire the new collateral type, deposit it into the new market, and re-borrow DOLA.
This process involves multiple transactions with gas costs for each, so carefully consider your collateral choice upfront. However, the isolation between markets means you can always open a second position with different collateral without disturbing your first position.
DOLA Borrowing Rights Questions
What exactly is DBR?
DBR (DOLA Borrowing Rights) is an ERC-20 token that represents your right to borrow DOLA on FiRM. Think of it as prepaid interest or a borrowing license.
One DBR token gives you the right to borrow one DOLA for one year at zero additional interest. If you want to borrow 5,000 DOLA for six months, you need 2,500 DBR (half the amount since it's half the time).
While you have an active loan, your DBR balance decreases continuously at a rate proportional to your debt. When you repay, the DBR consumption stops and remaining DBR stays in your wallet for future use.
How much DBR do I need?
Use this formula: DBR needed = Borrow Amount × (Duration in days ÷ 365)
Examples:
Borrow 10,000 DOLA for 1 year = 10,000 DBR
Borrow 10,000 DOLA for 6 months = 5,000 DBR
Borrow 10,000 DOLA for 90 days = 2,466 DBR
Borrow 5,000 DOLA for 2 years = 10,000 DBR
Always buy 20-30% more than your calculated minimum as a safety buffer. If you underestimate your hold period or forget to top up, this buffer prevents forced replenishment.
Where do I buy DBR?
DBR is available through three main channels:
XY=K Auction (inverse.finance/xykauction): Often has the best prices, especially during low-demand periods. This is a Dutch auction where price decreases continuously until someone buys. You can purchase any amount of DBR using DOLA.
Curve Finance (triDBR pool): Good for larger purchases with predictable slippage. Trade DOLA, USDC, or other stablecoins for DBR. Check current liquidity and exchange rates before executing.
DEX Aggregators (CowSwap, 1inch, LlamaSwap): Compare prices across multiple venues and execute at the best rate. Paste DBR contract address: [INSERT DBR ADDRESS] to find the token.
What happens if I run out of DBR?
If your DBR balance reaches zero while you still have outstanding debt, forced replenishment occurs. Anyone can purchase DBR on your behalf and add it to your wallet, with the cost added directly to your DOLA debt.
Forced replenishment prices are set at a significant premium (typically 5-10x normal market rates) to incentivize you to manage your DBR balance responsibly rather than relying on replenishment.
Example: Normal DBR costs $0.02, but forced replenishment might charge $0.10-0.20 per DBR. For a 5,000 DOLA position requiring DBR top-up, you'd pay $500-1,000 instead of $100 at market rates.
This is completely avoidable—simply monitor your "days until DBR depletion" and buy more DBR before you run out.
Can I sell my unused DBR?
Yes. DBR is a freely tradeable ERC-20 token. If you repay your loan early or overbought DBR, you can sell excess on Curve, through the XY=K auction, or on DEX aggregators.
Many users strategically buy DBR when prices are low (during low borrowing demand) and either use it for future borrows or sell when prices rise (during high demand). This creates a secondary market for rate speculation.
Does DBR price fluctuate?
Yes. DBR trades on open markets and its price reflects supply and demand for DOLA borrowing. When borrowing demand is high, DBR prices rise. When demand is low, prices fall.
This creates the effective APR for borrowing: if you pay $0.02 per DBR to borrow for one year, your effective APR is 2%. If DBR costs $0.05, your effective APR is 5%.
Track DBR prices to time your purchases. Buying during low-demand periods locks in lower borrowing costs even if rates rise later—this is the fixed-rate advantage.
Can I earn DBR instead of buying it?
Yes, by staking INV on FiRM. INV stakers receive DBR streaming rewards in addition to anti-dilution xINV rewards. The DBR you earn can cover borrowing costs or be sold for income.
Current DBR emission rates to INV stakers vary based on governance decisions and protocol revenue. Check the INV Staking page for current APYs.
This creates an interesting strategy: stake INV to earn DBR, use that DBR to borrow DOLA against your staked INV, creating leveraged exposure funded by your own DBR earnings.
Liquidation & Replenishment Questions
When does liquidation happen?
Liquidation occurs when your collateral value falls below the minimum required to support your debt. Each market has a liquidation threshold slightly above the collateral factor.
For example, with an 82% collateral factor, liquidation typically triggers around 85% loan-to-value ratio. This 3% buffer protects the protocol from accumulating bad debt if prices continue falling.
Calculation example:
You borrowed $8,000 DOLA against $10,000 wETH (80% LTV)
wETH drops 15% to $8,500
Your LTV is now 94% ($8,000 / $8,500)
This exceeds the 85% liquidation threshold
Liquidation is triggered
The exact liquidation threshold varies by collateral type. Check your market's specific parameters in the FiRM interface or our FiRM Liquidations guide.
How much do I lose in liquidation?
During liquidation, liquidators can repay up to a certain percentage of your debt (typically 50%) in exchange for your collateral at a discounted price. The liquidation penalty is usually 5-10% depending on the market.
Example liquidation:
You have $8,000 debt backed by $8,500 collateral
Liquidator repays $4,000 of your debt (50%)
They receive $4,200 worth of your collateral ($4,000 + 5% bonus)
You're left with: $4,000 debt and $4,300 collateral
Your position is now healthier (lower LTV) but you lost value
The liquidation penalty compensates liquidators for gas costs and incentivizes quick liquidations before positions become severely undercollateralized.
Can I prevent liquidation?
Yes, through proactive position management:
Monitor your collateral ratio: Check your position weekly at minimum, daily during volatile markets. The dashboard shows your current LTV and liquidation threshold clearly.
Maintain conservative leverage: Never borrow at maximum capacity. Stay below 70% LTV even if your market allows 82%. This 12-point buffer protects against normal market volatility.
Set price alerts: Use CoinGecko, TradingView, or similar to alert you when your collateral price drops 10%, 15%, and 20% from deposit price. This gives you time to react.
Keep capital ready: Have extra collateral or DOLA available to quickly add to your position during drawdowns. Being able to inject capital in minutes can prevent liquidation.
Add collateral or repay debt: When your LTV enters the warning zone (70%+), immediately add more collateral or repay some debt to restore your safety margin.
See our FiRM Liquidations & Replenishments guide for comprehensive prevention strategies.
What's the difference between liquidation and replenishment?
Liquidation occurs when collateral value becomes insufficient for your debt. Your collateral is sold to repay the loan. This is triggered by price movements of your collateral asset.
Replenishment occurs when your DBR balance reaches zero. DBR is purchased on your behalf at premium prices and the cost is added to your debt. This is triggered by time passing, not price movements.
Both are preventable: liquidation through maintaining safe collateral ratios, replenishment through monitoring DBR balance and topping up before depletion.
Can liquidation be reversed or stopped?
No. Liquidation executes automatically via smart contracts when thresholds are crossed. There's no appeals process, no manual review, no way to stop it once triggered.
This is why prevention is critical. Once you see your collateral ratio entering dangerous territory (above 75%), you must act immediately—add collateral, repay debt, or accept liquidation risk.
During extreme volatility, gas prices spike and network congestion increases, making it harder and more expensive to save your position. This is why maintaining substantial safety margins (staying below 70% LTV) is essential.
What happens to my DBR if I get liquidated?
Your DBR stays in your wallet. Liquidation only affects your collateral and debt—it doesn't touch your DBR tokens.
If you had excess DBR (more than needed for your remaining debt), you can sell it or use it for future borrows. If you had insufficient DBR when liquidated, the forced replenishment cost will have been added to your debt before liquidation occurred.
Position Management Questions
How do I add more collateral to my position?
Navigate to your market on FiRM, click the "Deposit" tab, enter the additional amount you want to deposit, and confirm the transaction. Your collateral immediately increases and your LTV ratio improves.
You don't need to close or modify your existing borrow—additional collateral simply makes your position safer and increases your maximum borrow capacity if you want to borrow more later.
How do I repay my debt?
Go to your market, click the "Repay" tab, enter the amount of DOLA you want to repay (or click "Max" for full repayment), and confirm the transaction.
Your debt decreases immediately and your LTV ratio improves. After full repayment, you can withdraw all your collateral. Partial repayments allow you to reduce risk while maintaining access to borrowed DOLA.
You need DOLA in your wallet to repay. If you used your borrowed DOLA elsewhere, you'll need to retrieve it or purchase DOLA to repay.
Can I borrow more without closing my position?
Yes, if you have available borrowing capacity. Your maximum borrow is determined by your collateral value times the collateral factor. If you're currently below this maximum, you can borrow additional DOLA anytime.
Example:
Deposited: $10,000 wstETH (82% collateral factor)
Currently borrowed: $6,000 DOLA
Maximum capacity: $8,200 DOLA
Available to borrow: $2,200 additional DOLA
Simply go to the Borrow tab and borrow more. Just ensure you have sufficient DBR to cover the additional borrowed amount times your hold duration.
How do I close my position completely?
Full position closure requires two steps:
Step 1: Repay all debt
Navigate to your market
Click "Repay" tab
Click "Max" to repay your entire balance
Confirm the transaction
Step 2: Withdraw all collateral
After debt is zero, click "Withdraw" tab
Click "Max" to withdraw all collateral
Confirm the transaction
Your Personal Collateral Escrow remains (it's permanent), but it's empty and you have no active position. You can reuse it anytime by depositing collateral and borrowing again.
What should I do with my borrowed DOLA?
How you use borrowed DOLA depends on your strategy:
Earn yield: Stake in sDOLA for auto-compounding yields or jrDOLA for enhanced yields with risk. If yields exceed your DBR costs, you're earning positive carry.
Provide liquidity: Add to Curve, Velodrome, or Balancer pools to earn trading fees and incentives while maintaining DOLA exposure.
Leverage: Buy more of your collateral asset with borrowed DOLA, deposit it, borrow more, repeat. This creates leveraged exposure (high risk, requires active management).
Real-world use: Spend DOLA for actual expenses without selling your crypto collateral. This is common for businesses, DAOs, or individuals who need cash flow while maintaining their crypto positions.
Hold as stable value: Keep DOLA as a stablecoin hedge against volatility in your other holdings.
The beauty of FiRM is you have complete flexibility—use borrowed DOLA however you want while maintaining your collateral exposure.
Technical & Advanced Questions
What is a Personal Collateral Escrow (PCE)?
PCE is an isolated smart contract that holds your collateral for a specific market. Each user gets their own PCE for each collateral type they use—your wstETH PCE is separate from your INV PCE, which is separate from other users' PCEs.
This isolation is a critical security feature. If one market experiences oracle failures, exploits, or other issues, damage is contained to that market's PCEs. Your positions in other markets remain completely safe.
PCEs also enable unique features like retaining governance voting rights. When you deposit INV, CVX, or CRV into your PCE, you can stake those tokens and vote with them while simultaneously borrowing against them—impossible in pooled collateral systems.
What is the Pessimistic Price Oracle (PPO)?
PPO is FiRM's conservative price valuation system. Instead of using a single price feed, PPO takes the lower of two values: the current Chainlink price and a 48-hour low price adjusted by the collateral factor.
Example:
wETH current price: $3,000 (Chainlink)
wETH 48-hour low: $2,800
Collateral factor: 82%
PPO calculation: min($3,000, $2,800 / 0.82) = min($3,000, $3,415)
PPO uses: $3,000 (the lower value)
This conservative approach protects against flash loan attacks, oracle manipulation, and temporary price spikes. It especially benefits long-term borrowers by preventing false liquidations from brief oracle anomalies.
The tradeoff is you get slightly lower borrowing capacity than if FiRM used optimistic pricing, but the safety benefit far outweighs this minor inconvenience.
How does the rolling 24-hour borrow limit work?
Instead of resetting borrow limits at a fixed time (midnight UTC), FiRM uses a continuously replenishing cap. Your available borrow capacity recovers incrementally every second over a 24-hour period.
How it works:
Market has 1M DOLA daily limit
User borrows 500K DOLA at 3pm Monday
Their personal limit depletes by 500K
Starting at 3pm Tuesday (24 hours later), capacity begins returning
By 3pm Tuesday, they have 500K capacity available again
This prevents users from exploiting timezone-based resets where someone could borrow maximum amounts just before midnight, then again just after midnight, effectively double-borrowing.
It also ensures fairer access—users in different timezones get equal opportunity rather than advantages going to those who can time the reset.
Can smart contracts borrow on FiRM?
Only whitelisted contracts can borrow DOLA. This restriction prevents flash loan attacks and other exploits where malicious contracts could manipulate markets within a single transaction.
Any address can deposit collateral, but the Borrow Controller checks if msg.sender is whitelisted before allowing DOLA borrows. This creates a security perimeter around the most sensitive operation (minting DOLA) while keeping deposits permissionless.
Legitimate protocols wanting to integrate FiRM borrowing can request whitelist approval through governance proposals with security audits.
What are the contract addresses?
Core FiRM Contracts:
Borrow Controller:
[INSERT ADDRESS]DBR Token:
[INSERT ADDRESS]DOLA Token:
[INSERT ADDRESS]
Market-Specific Contracts: Each collateral market has its own set of contracts including the market contract and Personal Collateral Escrow implementation. See our Smart Contracts page for the complete list of all market contracts and their addresses.
Always verify contract addresses through multiple official sources (docs, Discord, app.inverse.finance) before interacting.
Has FiRM been audited?
Yes, FiRM has undergone multiple comprehensive security audits. Review the Audits page for more.
Troubleshooting
Transaction keeps failing - what's wrong?
Common causes and solutions:
Insufficient gas: Increase your gas limit in MetaMask/wallet settings. FiRM transactions can be complex and may need higher limits than the estimated amount.
Not enough ETH: Ensure you have enough ETH to cover gas fees. Even if you have the tokens you're depositing, you need ETH for transaction costs.
Approval needed: For first-time interactions with a market, you must "approve" the token before depositing. Complete the approval transaction, wait for confirmation, then retry your deposit/borrow.
Insufficient DBR: If borrowing, verify you have enough DBR in your wallet for your intended borrow amount and duration. The error message should specify if this is the issue.
Slippage (for swaps): If you're swapping to get collateral or DBR, increase slippage tolerance to 1-2% to account for price movement during transaction processing.
Network congestion: During high gas price periods, transactions may fail if you're using low gas settings. Increase gas price or wait for network congestion to decrease.
I don't see DBR in my wallet after buying
DBR is there—your wallet just doesn't display it yet because it's not automatically recognized.
To add DBR to MetaMask:
Open MetaMask
Scroll to bottom of token list
Click "Import tokens"
Paste DBR contract address:
[INSERT DBR ADDRESS]Token symbol: DBR
Decimals: 18
Click "Add Custom Token"
Confirm
DBR will now appear in your token list with your correct balance.
My position isn't showing on the dashboard
Several possible reasons:
Blockchain confirmation delay: Transactions need time to confirm and propagate. Wait 1-2 minutes then refresh the page.
Cache issue: Clear your browser cache or try opening in an incognito/private window.
Wrong network: Verify your wallet is connected to Ethereum Mainnet (or whatever network you borrowed on). If connected to wrong network, positions won't display.
Transaction didn't complete: Check Etherscan using your wallet address to verify your transactions actually completed. You may need to retry a failed transaction.
Dashboard loading error: Sometimes the dashboard has temporary loading issues. Disconnect and reconnect your wallet, or try accessing from a different device.
If the problem persists, verify on Etherscan that your transactions confirmed, then ask in Discord #support-and-bugs with your wallet address and transaction hashes.
Can't withdraw collateral even though debt is repaid
Check these issues:
Debt not fully repaid: Even 0.01 DOLA of remaining debt prevents full collateral withdrawal. Click "Repay Max" to ensure complete repayment including any accrued amounts.
DBR still streaming: If you have any debt, DBR is still being consumed. Verify your debt is actually zero before attempting withdrawal.
Transaction failed: The repayment transaction may have failed. Check Etherscan to verify it completed successfully.
Wrong market: Ensure you're viewing the correct collateral market. If you have multiple positions, you might be looking at the wrong one.
Once debt is confirmed at exactly zero, you should be able to withdraw all collateral immediately.
Collateral ratio showing as unhealthy but I'm sure it's safe
Verify using these steps:
Check actual numbers: Look at your debt amount and collateral value directly, don't just trust the ratio display. Calculate manually: (Debt / Collateral Value) × 100 = Your actual LTV%.
Price volatility: If your collateral is volatile (ETH, BTC, governance tokens), prices may have moved since you last checked. Refresh the page to get current prices.
PPO pricing: Remember FiRM uses Pessimistic Price Oracle, which may value your collateral lower than spot prices you see elsewhere. This is intentional and conservative.
Different collateral factor than expected: Verify your market's actual collateral factor. If governance recently changed it, your safe borrowing amount may have decreased.
If you're still confused, share your specific numbers in Discord #support and the community can help verify if there's a display bug or if you genuinely need to add collateral.
Still Have Questions?
Can't find your answer here? We have several support channels:
Discord: Fastest way to get help from the community and team. Join Discord
Governance Forum: For detailed technical questions or discussions. Visit Forum
Documentation: Explore our other FiRM guides for deeper dives on specific topics:
Twitter: Follow @InverseFinance for updates and announcements.
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