BlockBeats report, March 13: CoW Swap has issued an official response to 「a user lost over $50 million in slippage while buying AAVE」: Earlier today, a trader attempted to exchange 50 million aEthUSDT for aEthAAVE via Aave’s swap interface, powered by CoW Protocol. Despite clear warnings indicating the user would lose nearly the entire value of the transaction—and requiring explicit confirmation to proceed after viewing the warning—the user chose to continue with the swap.
It should be noted that CoW Protocol is a decentralized exchange aggregator that routes trades through nearly all major public and private liquidity sources. No single DEX, DEX aggregator, public liquidity pool, private liquidity pool, or combination thereof could execute this trade at a price close to fair value.
Blocking users from trading takes away their autonomy and can lead to serious consequences in certain situations (e.g., market crashes). That said, this type of transaction highlights that the DeFi user experience has not yet reached a level that protects all users. As a team, we are re-evaluating how to strike a balance between strong safeguards and preserving user autonomy. We will also refund any fees paid to CoW DAO as a result of this transaction.