I’ll explain this calmly and cleanly, because what you ran into is not stupidity — it’s a rule-design trap that catches a lot of experienced users.

What actually happened (mechanism, not emotion)

🔹 The key rule you missed

“Qualified balance is calculated by the minimum of hourly snapshots.”

This means:

The system takes 24 snapshots (one per hour)

It does NOT average them

It uses the lowest balance among those 24 hours

If any one hour = 0, then the whole day = 0

So:

8:00 → 0

9:00 → 0

10:00 → you borrow and transfer

👉 Daily qualified balance = 0

Your later action doesn’t matter for that day.

Why platforms use this “strange” algorithm 🧠

You asked the right question:

Why not average the hourly snapshots?

The real reasons (not stated, but obvious):

1️⃣ Anti-gaming design

If averages were used:

People could borrow for 1 hour

Inflate balance

Dump after snapshot

Still get rewards

Using the minimum forces:

Continuous participation

24-hour capital lock

No “in-and-out” tricks

2️⃣ Liquidity protection

They want stable TVL

Not short-term inflows

This favors whales with idle capital

Retail flexibility is the casualty.

3️⃣ Operational simplicity

Minimum is easier to compute

Harder to dispute

Zero ambiguity for rules enforcement

Unfair? Maybe.

Effective? Yes.

Why USD1 was suddenly “borrowed out”

That part is actually logical:

Large players understand the snapshot rule

They borrow before the first snapshot of the day

They keep balances non-zero all 24 hours

Supply gets exhausted early

So when you checked:

“USD1 was borrowed out completely”

That means:

Whales were already positioned

Retail arrived after the gate closed

You weren’t late by minutes —

you were late by one snapshot window.

The painful but useful lesson 💡

In snapshot-based events, timing > strategy.

If rules say:

minimum hourly balance

daily qualification

Then the only correct behavior is:

enter before the first snapshot

never let balance hit zero