# Gearbox proposes emergency rstETH account expiry ahead of an in-place upgrade

> If executed, affected Credit Managers would expire on 2025-12-20, liquidation fees and premiums would fall to 0.01%, and specified emergency-liquidator profits would be returned to account owners.

- URL: https://riadefi.com/on-chain/2025-12-18-gearbox-mellow-rsteth-emergency-expiry/
- Type: Governance
- Stage: Proposed
- Evidence: developing
- Materiality: material
- Event date: 2025-12-18
- Version: 1, published 2026-08-22 (first published 2026-08-22)
- Follow-up: 2025-12-20
- Advisor-relevant: no
- Affects: Gearbox (protocol); Mellow Core (protocol)

Developing. Some claims here are not yet confirmed; they are listed apart from the confirmed facts. A new version replaces this one when the primary evidence changes.

## What happened

Gearbox governance proposed expiring affected Chaos Labs wstETH Credit Managers before Mellow and P2P changed the implementation behind the existing rstETH token address. The proposal described compatibility and risk-profile discontinuities and added liquidation protections.

## What changed

If executed, affected Credit Managers would expire on 2025-12-20, liquidation fees and premiums would fall to 0.01%, and specified emergency-liquidator profits would be returned to account owners.

## What did not change

The candidate does not prove that the vote passed, transactions executed, or the rstETH implementation upgrade occurred. It reports no completed liquidation or protocol loss.

## Confirmed

- GIP-273 identifies an intended in-place rstETH implementation change rather than migration to a new token address.
- Gearbox states that existing oracles and adapters could become incompatible with the new implementation.
- The proposal sets an expiration timestamp of 2025-12-20 13:00 UTC for specified Chaos Labs wstETH Credit Managers.
- It proposes 0.01% expired liquidation fees and premiums and a return of specified emergency-liquidator profits to account owners.

## Still open

- The Snapshot record does not establish the final vote, timelock, or execution result.
- The operative Mellow implementation diff, deployment transaction, audits, and final upgrade time are not included.
- The number and value of affected rstETH Credit Accounts are not stated.
- No evidence establishes whether any account was liquidated or suffered loss.

## What it means for an advisor

- Review both Mellow Core and Gearbox diligence for same-address implementation migration risk.
- Treat token-address continuity as insufficient evidence that an asset's technical and economic risk profile is unchanged.
- Verify whether affected Gearbox positions were closed or migrated before the expiration timestamp and whether emergency protections executed as proposed.

## Sources

1. [GIP-273: Mellow and P2P rstETH implementation update response](https://snapshot.org/#/gearbox.eth/proposal/0xf1afeed54d0878cd2d8979ad710b437f8d451495245cc1127dc602bb743f6dda) · Gearbox governance · 2025-12-18


---

Published by Ketju Research on RIADeFi (https://riadefi.com). Educational research for financial professionals; not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.