Phantom Collateral Injections: False Backing Attacks in Stablecoin and Interoperability Systems

Phantom Collateral Injections represent a class of false-backing attacks in which stablecoin or interoperable financial systems accept the appearance of collateral without enforcing its persistence, exclusivity, or irreversibility. By exploiting cross-chain messaging, transient liquidity mechanisms, or reversible state representations, adversaries can momentarily satisfy collateral constraints, mint assets, and subsequently remove or invalidate the backing without triggering immediate detection. This paper formalizes Phantom Collateral Injections as a systemic risk to stablecoin integrity and cross-chain trust, analyzes their structural enablers and execution paths, and outlines mitigation requirements necessary for secure collateral enforcement in interoperable financial architectures.