Cardano Holder Accidentally Loses $6M After Swapping ADA in Illiquid Pool

A long-inactive Cardano wallet accidentally lost over $6 million by swapping 14.4 million ADA in a low-liquidity pool.
Because the pool didn’t have enough depth, the large order moved the price, creating a spike mid-swap that worked against the trade.

According to blockchain analyst Zachxbt, a Cardano (ADA) wallet that has been dormant since September 2020 has recently become active and executed a massive swap, trading 14.4 million ADA, valued at roughly $6.9 million, for 847,000 USDA, a Cardano-native stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The transaction, which occurred just two hours ago, ended disastrously: the holder reportedly lost around $6.05 million.

This incident serves as a stark reminder to crypto investors about the importance of using highly liquid pools for swaps. It highlights a critical lesson: even long-held, inactive assets can suffer severe slippage when traded in illiquid pools, especially on decentralized exchanges where liquidity can be inconsistent.

The root cause of the loss was extremely low liquidity in the ADA–USD pool. Because the pool was shallow, the large trade caused the price to spike sharply and temporarily, briefly pushing ANZA’s price to around $1.26 before it fell back to $1.04. As a result, the swap was executed at a highly unfavorable rate.

There is no clarity on whether the Cardano holder purposefully targeted this stablecoin, which currently holds a $10.6 million market cap. Notably, the investor had no prior record of holding USDA, raising questions about whether they fully understood the risks involved or simply made a “fat-finger” error.

Not the First Incident of Its Kind

In October, Paxos, the regulated issuer behind the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin, mistakenly minted 300 trillion PYUSD during an internal transfer. Within roughly 22 minutes, Paxos corrected the mistake by burning the entire amount, sending the tokens to an inaccessible “burn” address.

Since PYUSD is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, the minted amount was equivalent to $300 trillion, a figure that stunned crypto observers, as it far exceeded not only PYUSD’s market capitalization but even global GDP. The incident caused short-term disruption as Aave temporarily froze PYUSD markets to manage the fallout.

The mistake has reignited concerns about centralization and control in stablecoin issuance. Because Paxos, like other issuers, has “god-mode” capabilities, a single error or malicious action has the potential to create enormous value on-chain.

Cardano Expands Enterprise Presence

In a recent update, CNF explained that Iagon, an AI-based platform founded in 2017, announced that Porsche, Subaru, and a Canadian airline will integrate its technology. These companies will now use Iagon software to protect the intellectual property (IP) of automotive parts, strengthening Cardano’s business strategy by showcasing the blockchain’s technical capabilities.

Meanwhile, EMURGO, Cardano’s commercial arm, has partnered with Wirex during Day Zero of the 2025 Cardano Summit in Berlin. The collaboration introduces the Cardano Card, a multi-chain crypto card integrated directly into the Wirex platform. This card connects ADA to more than 6 million users across 130 countries, allowing holders to spend ADA and 685 other cryptocurrencies for both online and offline payments worldwide.

Despite these developments, ADA is 84% below its $3.1 all-time high in 2021. According to Ali Martinez, “440 million Cardano $ADA have been sold by whales in just one month.”

Currently, ADA is trading at $0.4929, down 2.19% in the past 24 hours and 17% over the past week, while its trading volume has surged 103% to $1.17 billion.

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