A major investor in the cryptocurrency market suffered significant financial losses during an attempt to exchange $50 million in USDT stablecoins for AAVE tokens. This incident was reported by Stani Kulechov, the CEO of Aave Labs.
This is reported by Business • Media
Reasons for the Losses: The Role of Slippage and Platform Warnings
As Kulechov noted, the user attempted to purchase AAVE tokens worth approximately $50 million through the official protocol interface. However, due to the extraordinarily large size of the market order, extreme price slippage occurred, resulting in a final outcome that significantly differed from expectations.
“Before confirming the transaction, the platform interface warned the user about potential risks. Despite the warning, the trader confirmed the transaction from their mobile device.”
As a result of the transaction, the trader received only 324 AAVE tokens, which at the time of the deal was worth about $36,000. Thus, nearly the entire invested amount was lost due to the significant impact of the large order on the market. Slippage is the difference between the price the trader expected and the actual execution price. Such situations typically occur during the exchange of large amounts or in low liquidity markets.
CoW Swap’s Position and Next Steps from the Aave Team
The CoW Swap platform, which is integrated with Aave, stated that the transaction was executed according to all the settings of the signed order, and no signs of hacking or exploitation of vulnerabilities were detected. Representatives of the service emphasized that the interface had previously warned the user about the potential significant impact of the operation on the asset’s price.
Stani Kulechov also reported that the Aave team is trying to contact the affected user. According to him, the protocol is capable of returning about $600,000 that was paid as fees for conducting this transaction.
This incident could become one of the largest examples of losses in the cryptocurrency market caused by slippage. For comparison, in 2025, one trader lost about $700,000 during a stablecoin exchange following a “sandwich” attack.
As of now, the AAVE token is trading around $114, which, according to TradingView, is 2.2% less than a week ago. The total market capitalization of the asset is $1.75 billion.
It was previously reported that the co-founder of Aave recently purchased a five-story mansion in London for $30 million.