Orca Crypto
DeFi term

Impermanent loss

The gap between providing liquidity and simply holding the two assets.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

The gap between providing liquidity and simply holding the two assets.

When the price ratio of the two pooled assets changes, the pool automatically rebalances toward the one that fell. You end up with more of the loser and less of the winner than if you had just held.

It is called impermanent because it reverses if prices return to where they started. If they do not, the loss becomes very permanent when you withdraw.

In practice

A 4x price divergence between the two assets produces roughly a 20 percent shortfall against just holding, before fees are counted.

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