Things people ask first.

Custody, cascade frequency, IL exposure, DIF overlap, audit timing. If a question is missing here, file an issue on GitHub.

Does ESEC hold my funds?

No. Capital lives in a PDA-owned token account whose authority is the on-chain program. Withdraws are authorized by your LP token holdings and executed via program-signed CPI. No off-chain key controls the vault.

What if the off-chain monitor goes down?

Deployed positions still auto-exit via the permissionlessstop_loss_crank at 5% drawdown, ortimeout_crank after 30 minutes. The worst case is a cycle that does not exit on the optimal recovery signal; downside is always bounded.

How often do cascades happen?

SOL alone saw a $657M liquidation cascade in April 2026. Smaller cascades (above our $1M cluster threshold) happen on Solana approximately 5 to 15 times per month, varying with realized volatility. Calm markets yield fewer cycles; volatile periods yield more.

Does this compete with Drift Insurance Fund?

Partially. Drift Insurance Fund is a passive backstop that absorbs liquidation fees as yield (~15% APY). ESEC is an active strategy that captures the rebound premium that follows forced selling. The two target different parts of the same flow. Drift could narrow this gap by adding active capture to DIF.

What if a cluster fires but the price keeps falling?

Stop-loss at 5% triggers. The vault exits, books a bounded loss for that cycle, returns to Idle, and is ready for the next cluster. The trend filter reduces deploy size during sustained downtrends to further limit exposure.

What is the realistic APY?

Backtests against 6 months of historical Drift / Marginfi cascades suggest 30-50% APY in normal market conditions. Bear regimes compress this. Bull regimes with high realized vol expand it. Real performance will be reported transparently per epoch post-mainnet.

Which venues are supported?

Devnet alpha: deploy/exit currently in state-machine-only mode. Q3 targets Raydium CLMM as the first live venue, then Orca Whirlpool, then Meteora DLMM. Multi-venue routing chooses per cluster based on depth, fee tier, and IL profile.

Can I withdraw while a cycle is running?

No. Withdraw is only valid while the vault is in Idlestate. Cycles bound at 30 minutes (timeout), and on-chain stop-loss is permissionless, so you are never locked out for more than 30 minutes worst case.

Is there a token?

$CASC is not launched. TGE is post-audit. The token will capture vault fee revenue (performance fees + withdraw fees) and route it to stakers in SOL. Read TOKENOMICS.md for the full model.

When mainnet?

Audit-gated. Q3 2026 targets devnet beta with all venues integrated. Audit engages in Q4. Mainnet ships when audit closes. No earlier date will be committed to until audit is engaged.