Crypto whale loses nearly $50 million swapping USDT for AAVE

When someone in crypto loses millions of dollars in an instant, it's usually due to a hack or an exploit. But, on Thursday, one crypto whale appears to have lost nearly $50 million simply trying to swap USDT for AAVE.

"Earlier today, a user attempted to buy AAVE using $50 million USDT through the Aave interface. Given the unusually large size of the single order, the Aave interface, like most trading interfaces, warned the user about extraordinary slippage and required confirmation via a checkbox," Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani Kulechov said in a post to X.

Thursday's mishap could be the largest of its kind in history. Last year, a crypto trader lost considerably less when they swapped about $733,000 of USDC for roughly $19,000 in USDT as a result of a large sandwich attack.

"The user confirmed the warning on their mobile device and proceeded with the swap, accepting the high slippage, which ultimately resulted in receiving only 324 AAVE in return," Kulechov added.

Slippage is the difference between the price a trader would expect to get in a trade and the price they receive once the transaction executes. This can happen in large orders or when liquidity is weak.

CoW Swap, which has an established integration with Aave, also took to social media. "Based on what we’ve seen so far, there’s no indication of a protocol exploit or otherwise malicious behavior. The transaction executed according to the parameters of the signed order," the organization posted to X. "Our interface shows clear price impact warnings for swaps of this magnitude. We’re continuing to review the details and will share updates as we learn more."

Kulechov said Aave sympathizes with the user and is trying to contact them and return "$600,000 in fees collected from the transaction."