AAVE Whale's $50M USDT Swap Ends in Massive Loss and MEV Bot Profit on March 12, 2026

On March 12, 2026, a large trader attempted to exchange $50 million in USDT for AAVE in a single on-chain swap through the Aave interface using CoW Swap and received only 324 AAVE worth about $50,000 due to extreme slippage. The transaction, which showed no protocol exploit according to project teams, highlighted how low liquidity at that size and the absence of MEV protection allowed an MEV bot to capture a substantial profit and turned the trade into an almost total loss for the wallet owner.