Crypto Whale Beached, Loses Nearly $50 Million Swapping USDT For AAVE

Authored by RT Watson via The Block,

Quick Take

• Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani Kulechov said a crypto user “attempted to buy AAVE using $50 million in USDT through the Aave interface” but only received about $36,000 worth of the token in return.
• CoW Swap said the “transaction executed according to the parameters of the signed order” and that “clear price impact warnings” were given.

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.

Earlier today, a user attempted to buy AAVE using $50M 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.…

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) March 12, 2026

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.

Yes.

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) March 12, 2026

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.”

[ZH] And where did it go?

This Mev Bot managed to extract almost $10M worth of ETHhttps://t.co/HFOx32Y4dw pic.twitter.com/TZJpHemecY

— Emmett Gallic (@emmettgallic) March 12, 2026