Trader Loses ₱2.99 billion ($50 million) in Single Swap; MEV Bot Extracts ₱2.08 billion ($34.8 million)
On March 12, an MEV bot arbitraged a massive token swap across Uniswap and SushiSwap pools, extracting ₱2.08 billion ($34.8 million) in value while the trader received just 327.24 AAVE tokens now worth $36,100 from their ₱3.01 billion ($50.43 million) input.
Key Takeaway
MEV bots captured 70% of a $50 million bad trade while protocols debate user protection versus autonomy.
A crypto trader lost $50.43 million in a single token swap on March 12, receiving just 327.24 AAVE tokens now worth $36,100.
The transaction executed through CoW Protocol at Ethereum block 24,643,151. An MEV bot immediately arbitraged the swap across Uniswap and SushiSwap pools, paying 16,927 ETH worth $34.8 million to Titan Builder. Titan Builder kept 16,359 ETH worth $33.6 million and paid 568 ETH worth $1.2 million to a Lido validator, making it the highest-earning crypto platform in the 24-hour period according to DeFiLlama data. The bot operator walked away with $10 million.
Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain identified crypto trader Garrett Jin, previously known for a $735 million Bitcoin short position on Hyperliquid in October, as the possible wallet owner. Lookonchain traced 13 wallets that received USDC and USDT from Binance on February 16 and February 20, then became active again on Thursday to move funds. Jin has not confirmed any link to the loss.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the transaction could not move forward without the user explicitly accepting the risk through the confirmation checkbox. He described the outcome as clearly far from optimal and committed to reviewing stronger safeguards around similar trades. Aave plans to refund approximately $600,000 in fees to the affected user. The protocol has processed $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume.
CoW Protocol said available public and private liquidity sources could not support a reasonable fill for an order that size. The protocol stated there was no indication of an exploit or malicious behavior, and the transaction executed according to the signed order parameters. Polymarket developer relations executive Suhail Kakar warned that a mobile confirmation flow should not stand between a user and a $49.9 million loss due to slippage.
CoW Protocol will refund any fees sent to CoW DAO and committed to improving DeFi user experience. AAVE was trading at $111.52 at the time of reporting.
This article was written based on reporting from CryptoSlate.
