Crypto Veteran’s $6M Nightmare: How a Stablecoin Swap Went Horribly Wrong for 5-Year Cardano Holder
A brutal lesson in DeFi's sharp edges—one wrong click vaporizes a fortune.
The price of distraction
Five years of diamond hands undone in seconds. Our victim wasn't some greenhorn chasing memecoins—this was a battle-tested Cardano loyalist. Yet a routine stablecoin swap somehow morphed into a $6 million disappearing act.
Anatomy of a disaster
Details remain murky, but the hallmarks are classic: slippage miscalculations, fat-fingered inputs, or maybe just the blockchain gods feeling cruel. Whatever the cause, the result's the same—another cautionary tale for crypto's 'trustless' paradise.
The irony stings
What really burns? This wasn't even a risky play—just mundane portfolio maintenance. Goes to show: in crypto, even brushing your teeth can bankrupt you if the smart contract feels spicy. Maybe stick to good ol' FDIC-insured 0.01% savings accounts... said no true degen ever.
- Cardano holder lost $6.05 million while exchanging 14.4 million ADA into the USDA stablecoin.
- The low market capitalization value for the USDA stablecoin at $10.6 million led to extreme volatility and significant losses.
- Cardano’s ADA token traded at $0.4936 with a market capitalization of 17.71 billion dollars, and whales sold 440 million ADA.
A five-year Cardano (ADA) holder accidentally burned over $6 million worth of ADA after attempting a stablecoin swap through a low-liquidity trading pool. The incident, spotted by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, highlights the risks of interacting with obscure crypto assets.
Cardano Holder Loses $6.9 Million in Swap
Vladimir S. highlighted that, according to ZachXBT, a cardano investor traded 14.4 million ADA tokens worth approximately 6.9 million dollars to receive 847,695 USDA, which is a Cardano-supported stablecoin linked to the US Dollar. This led to an unexpected loss of approximately 6.05 million dollars due to extremely low liquidity within this pool that triggered a considerable spike in its value.
Analysis carried out on blockchain information indicates that there have been no transactions on this wallet, which is recognized as “addr…4×534,” since September 13, 2020. The wallet actually performed a test transaction consisting of 4,437 ADA to a US Dollar stablecoin merely a minute before this huge transfer to USDA, which occurred at 4:06 pm UTC.
Notably, this wallet has remained inactive since September 13, 2020. Just 33 seconds before this huge ADA exchange worth millions, the user performed a small test transaction, exchanging 4,437 ADA for a stablecoin labeled USD, possibly to check the process before committing a much larger sum.
The stablecoin involved is named USDA and has a market capitalization of only $10.6 million, which raises questions about whether the Cardano holder comprehensively appreciated the risks involved. Cardano onlookers have noted that this is the first contact that this wallet has had with the USDA.
Whales Sell 440 Million ADA Recently
Crypto experts have highlighted that “fat-finger” transactions like this can have significant market impacts. Similar incidents have occurred in the past, particularly when, last month, 300 trillion PYUSD tokens were incorrectly printed by stablecoin company Paxos and subsequently burned.
At the time of writing, ADA was trading at $0.4936, down 2.08% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $17.71 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.56 billion.
On the other hand, as per Ali Marteniz’s post, recent activity indicates that approximately 440 million ADA have been sold by whales within the last month, which indicates market trends within the ecosystem.
As blockchain transactions continue to attract both seasoned and newer investors to the trade, there have been warnings about how even dormant accounts can lead to huge repercussions when transactions affect illiquid assets.
