50 million went in, 40 thousand came out. The most expensive "misclick" in DeFi history once again proves that the world is just a huge makeshift stage.
How many times do I have to say it? Stop mythologizing those whales with assets worth tens of millions; this world is essentially just a gigantic makeshift stage, where even top-tier on-chain operations can produce "suicidal" live cases.
Just in the past few days, the DeFi circle has witnessed the most expensive "misclick" in history: a whale attempted to swap 50 million $aUSDT for $aAAVE via the Aave official interface on their mobile device.
What was the result? 50 million dollars went in, and the coins that came out were only worth 36 thousand dollars. This operation was shocking to behold. If you say this was a hacker attack, people might still feel a sense of regret; but the truth is, this was entirely a catastrophic on-chain incident caused by arrogance and carelessness. Even though CoW Swap's routing and the Aave interface had already displayed glaring red warnings for "extreme slippage," this whale still calmly checked the confirmation on their phone and forced the execution.
MEV arbitrageurs went crazy laughing. The huge price difference instantly triggered bloody plunder in the "black forest":
Arbitrage profit: approximately 37 million dollars.
Bribery cost: To ensure this "windfall" wouldn't be snatched away by others, the arbitrageur paid the block builder (Titan Builder) 26 million dollars as a fee.
Final net gain: After deducting the bribe, the arbitrageur comfortably earned 11 million dollars.
What’s the most ironic part? Even the so-called most MEV-resistant CoW Swap couldn't stop users from wanting to "commit suicide." It's like driving a top-tier bulletproof car straight off a cliff; no one can stop it. Afterwards, Aave's founder Stani stated that he would refund 600 thousand dollars in fees.