Cardano Whale Loses $6M in ADA-USDA Swap: What Happened?

Key Takeaways

• A Cardano whale lost $6 million because a pool they chose lacked the depth to handle a transaction of that size.
• Experts have warned traders to use this tragic transaction as a lesson.
• Cardano’s broader market trend remains bearish.

A large Cardano whale lost roughly $6 million in a matter of seconds after swapping 14.4 million ADA into the USDA stablecoin on a decentralized exchange with thin liquidity, according to blockchain data shared by crypto investigator ZachXBT.

Devastating Transaction

The trouble began when the Cardano whale attempted to swap their ADA for USDA, a Cardano-native stablecoin.

Instead of going through a well-established pool, they unknowingly selected a trading pair with severely limited liquidity.

According to on-chain data, the trader pushed their entire 14.4 million ADA stack, worth roughly $6.9 million, into a single swap.

Because the pool didn’t have nearly enough depth to handle an order of that size, the massive input caused the price to swing sharply, draining value in real time.

By the time the transaction was executed, they received only $847,000 worth of USDA in return.

To make things even more tragic, on-chain records show the trader had been holding the stash for over five years before the devastating transaction.

The Danger of Illiquidity

According to the security analysts at financial technology company OneSafe, the root cause of the loss is attributed to the importance of liquidity depth.

In decentralized exchanges, liquidity pools must hold a balanced and robust amount of both assets, in this case ADA and USDA, to handle trades without violent price swings.

“When those pools run shallow,” OneSafe notes, “even a single large order can distort the market price dramatically.”

In this incident, the Cardano holder pushed through a massive, single-shot swap without checking liquidity levels or evaluating alternative pools.

“When liquidity is low, large trades can cause something called slippage, which can really hurt your return,” OneSafe wrote.

Lessons For Future Traders

The devastating mishap, which ZachXBT labeled his “On-chain clown of the month,” is being classed as a lesson for traders.

From OneSafe’s perspective, the event illustrates how important it is to examine liquidity and slippage parameters before hitting ‘swap.’

Many DEXs already include price-impact warnings and routing tools designed to prevent exactly this type of disaster.

“In this instance, the Cardano holder didn’t bother splitting their trade into smaller chunks or checking out other pools with better liquidity,” the analysts wrote.

OneSafe provided a list of tips for future crypto traders to follow:

• Do your research.
• Respect price impact warnings.
• Break up large transactions.
• Track market conditions.
• Understand smart contracts.
• Consider institutional tools.

Cardano Price Plummets

Cardano extended its multi-month slide last week, reinforcing what CCN analyst Valdrin Tahiri describes as a “renewed phase of bearish pressure.”

After months of defending the key $0.60 support level, ADA finally broke below it, turning the level into resistance and signaling that buyers have lost control of the trend.

According to Tahiri, the breakdown is significant: the longer ADA remains below $0.60, the more likely it is that the market will continue to drift lower.

The move comes as Cardano grapples with a decline that began shortly after its December 2024 cycle peak at $1.33.

Since then, the token has traded inside a descending parallel channel, a structure that often resolves with an upward breakout.

“This time, that breakout never came,” Tahiri notes.

Adding to the pressure, ADA has also fallen decisively below the…