Collateralized Debt Position
A position created by locking collateral in a contract and minting new tokens against it, which are repaid to unlock the collateral.
The borrowed tokens are created at the moment of borrowing rather than drawn from another user's deposit, so there is no lender on the other side, only a system-wide debt recorded against the collateral. The user pays a stability fee that accrues on the debt, and must maintain a minimum ratio of collateral value to debt or face automatic liquidation, usually through an auction that sells the collateral to repay what is owed. This structure is how most crypto-collateralized stablecoins are issued, and it means the token's supply grows and shrinks with borrowing demand rather than with deposits. It differs from pooled lending in a way that matters for understanding risk: the counterparty is the protocol's own accounting, not another user waiting to be repaid.
En pratique
Locking collateral to mint a stablecoin, then repaying that stablecoin plus the accrued fee to release the collateral, is the full lifecycle of a collateralized debt position.
Le malentendu courant
In a CDP the borrowed stablecoin is newly minted against collateral, not borrowed from a depositor's funds, so no user is waiting to be repaid.