Ethereum Trader Swaps $50.4 Million in USDT for $35,900 in AAVE
The March 13 Aave collateral swap routed through Uniswap V3 and a shallow SushiSwap pool, highlighting how poor liquidity and MEV extraction can amplify losses in DeFi trades.
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Fact Check
The event is corroborated by multiple independent social media reports (ICE_NEWS_, 0X7Hunter) and a specific transaction hash (0x9fa9feab3c1989a33424728c23e6de07a40a26a98ff7ff5139f3492ce430801f) that matches the details of the swap. The figures ($50.4M USDT for ~$36k AAVE) are consistent across all sources.
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Summary
A user lost about $50.4 million after swapping 50.43 million USDT into AAVE through Aave’s collateral swap feature on March 13, receiving only about $36,100 in AAVE. The trade was routed through Uniswap V3 and a shallow SushiSwap AAVE/WETH pool, causing extreme slippage. According to the new report, MEV builders, searchers, liquidity providers, and validators captured most of the lost value. The update adds execution-path details to the previously reported incident and further underscores liquidity and transaction-routing risks in DeFi.
Terms & Concepts
- AAVE: The native token of the Aave decentralized finance protocol, used within its ecosystem and traded on crypto markets.
- MEV: Maximal extractable value, the profit that validators, searchers, or builders can capture by reordering, including, or excluding transactions in a block.
- DeFi: Short for decentralized finance, a blockchain-based ecosystem of financial applications that operates without traditional intermediaries.