Key Highlights
- A user tried to swap $50 million USDT for AAVE on the Aave interface but ended up receiving only 324 tokens due to massive slippage.
- The platform has clearly warned about extreme slippage, but the user still confirmed the transaction on the mobile device
- DeFi protocol will return $600,000 in fees collected from the swap as a goodwill gesture
In the strange incident that took place on the Aave protocol today, a DeFi user executed a massive swap on the Aave protocol, where the user converted approximately $50 million in USDT into only 324 AAVE tokens, which are worth around $36,000 at the current market price. This transaction was executed even after receiving a clear warning of extreme slippage.
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
User Ignored Aave’s Explicit Warning
The incident has taken place on the official Aave interface, which integrates with CoW Swap routers for efficient order execution. According to Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov, the unusual type of big single order triggered a standard warning, where the platform gives a clear alert about potentially “extraordinary slippage” due to insufficient liquidity for such a large trade, which requires the user to check a confirmation box to proceed.
Despite this warning, the user accepted the warning and confirmed the transaction, which was operating from a mobile device.
(Source: Etherscan)
Blockchain data on Etherscan confirms that the swap went through without any apparent technical failure on the protocol side. CoW Swap’s routing mechanism operated as designed by following established industry standards for handling big trades.
However, the lack of deep liquidity in the relevant pools allowed MEV bots and arbitrageurs to capture the vast majority of the value, which, combined with the user’s acceptance of unlimited or extreme slippage tolerance. This has effectively turned the trade into one of the most expensive user errors seen in DeFi to date.
In the post on X, Kulechov stated that the transaction could not have been completed without the user’s explicit confirmation of the warning. He said, “Events like this do occur in DeFi, but the scale of this transaction was significantly larger than what is typically seen in the space.”
Aave has shown a commendable gesture for the affected user by stating that the team will attempt to make contact and has committed to returning approximately $600,000 in fees collected from the swap as a goodwill gesture.
“The key takeaway is that while DeFi should remain open and permissionless, allowing users to perform transactions freely, there are additional guardrails the industry can build to better protect users. Our team will be investigating ways to improve these safeguards going forward,” Kulechov said.
This is not the first incident, as DeFi’s permissionless nature has led to many high-level slippage incidents in the past, where users mistakenly executed large trades in low-liquidity pools.
In 2024, a Uniswap trader lost approximately $700,000 after setting improper slippage tolerance on a large swap. Due to this, an MEV bot which front-run the order exploited the misconfiguration for massive arbitrage.
Another major case involved a Dogwifhat buyer on Solana who spent around $9 million in early 2024 but suffered $5.7 million in losses due to extreme slippage in a small memecoin pool, with the token price crashing after the trade.
In November 2025, a Cardano holder swapped 14.4 million ADA, which was worth around $6.9 million, for the illiquid USDA stablecoin. This has triggered massive slippage and received only about $850,000.
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