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Justin Sun-Linked Wallet Pulled $274 Million in USDT From Aave Minutes After Freeze

The lightning exit shows how a DeFi market freeze can drain liquidity before smaller users can react.

Overview

  • A wallet tied to HTX Recovery executed five transactions in about five minutes after Aave halted the rsETH/wrsETH market, withdrawing $274 million in USDT.
  • Reporting attributes the initial halt to an exploit involving Kelp DAO and says Aave moved to a security lockdown across several networks.
  • Aave then curtailed withdrawals more broadly, pushing large holders to use decentralized exchanges for exits that carried slippage and realized losses.
  • One tracked whale sold deposit tokens to reclaim 17,400 ETH and lost about 310 ETH in the process, showing the real cost of forced liquidity moves.
  • Aave has begun a limited restart by unfrozing WETH only on its Ethereum Core V3 market with loan-to-value set to zero, while many other reserves remain locked.