Acidente de deslizamento histórico! Baleia gigante tentou comprar moedas AAVE com 50 milhões de dólares, mas conseguiu apenas 36 mil dólares

Ethereum on-chain experiences extreme slippage incident, exchanging 50.4 million USDT for only about 36,000 USD worth of AAVE, with Aave emphasizing no vulnerability and studying enhanced protections.

50 million USDT exchanged for 30,000 USD AAVE, on-chain transaction shocks market

Recent rare large-scale slippage event on Ethereum. A crypto whale attempted to swap about 50.4 million USDT for AAVE, but only received approximately 327 AAVE tokens, worth about 36,000 USD, resulting in an instant loss of around 50 million USD in assets.

On-chain data shows the transaction occurred on the Ethereum network, completed in about 30 seconds. The address initially withdrew about 50.4 million USDT (actually aEthUSDT) from the Aave protocol, then used CoW Protocol’s routing system to exchange tokens.

After the transaction, funds were converted into about 327 AAVE and re-deposited into Aave V3 protocol as aEthAAVE assets. Due to the huge discrepancy between the received tokens’ value and the original transaction amount, the event quickly sparked widespread discussion in the crypto market.

Lack of liquidity caused extreme slippage, arbitrage bots quickly exploited the price gap

According to on-chain records, the transaction involved multiple decentralized liquidity pools, including Uniswap V3 and SushiSwap.

Because the transaction size far exceeded available market liquidity, it caused extreme price impact during execution. The slippage exceeded 99%, so assets worth 50 million USD were exchanged for only a small amount of AAVE.

In DeFi markets, such situations are usually rapidly exploited by arbitrage bots. When transaction prices deviate significantly from market prices, arbitrage traders immediately use liquidity pools to perform reverse trades, turning the price difference into profit.

Thus, after the transaction, large value disparities were quickly absorbed by market arbitrageurs and routing systems, making the loss in value nearly irrecoverable.

Aave team states multiple warnings about slippage risks before the event

Regarding this incident, Aave founder Stani Kulechov explained on social platform X that the transaction was executed via the CoW Swap routing system integrated into the Aave interface, with no protocol vulnerabilities or malicious attacks involved.

Image source: X/@StaniKulechov Aave founder Stani Kulechov explains that the transaction was executed through the CoW Swap routing system integrated into the Aave interface, with no protocol vulnerabilities or malicious attack

He stated that due to the enormous size of the order, the system had clearly displayed an “extreme slippage” warning before the transaction, and required users to manually confirm the risk before proceeding.

According to the explanation, the user confirmed the risk prompt and completed the transaction on a mobile device. In other words, the system had already clearly indicated the potential price impact before execution, but the trader chose to continue.

Aave engineer Martin Grabina also pointed out that the core issue was not the slippage setting, but the order’s own significant price impact. The quote before execution already showed that about 50 million USDT could only exchange for less than 140 AAVE, indicating the order was inherently highly unfavorable at submission.

Huge DeFi transaction risks emerge, Aave to explore stronger security measures

Aave team states that despite the unfavorable outcome, the system operated as designed, with no protocol vulnerabilities or security issues. CoW Protocol also indicated there are no signs of attack or system anomalies. To reduce user losses, Aave plans to contact the transaction address and refund approximately 600,000 USD in fees.

Industry consensus suggests that large trades on decentralized exchanges, if not split into multiple orders or executed with professional strategies, are prone to significant price impact due to insufficient liquidity. Professional traders typically split large orders or use algorithmic trading to minimize market impact.

This incident is also viewed by some market participants as one of the largest slippage events in DeFi history. As Aave’s usage continues to grow, the team plans to study whether additional safety mechanisms are needed to balance decentralization and reduce extreme operational risks for users.