After reading your initial post, the good samaritan side of me kicked in, I would had returned the money assuming I didn't see the other side of the story which comes as a surprise. Thought the exchange was decentralized, how then were they able to seize or empty the account of the user?. I'll be glad if more details are reviewed like the exchange name so we can stay away from patronizing them in the future. They made an honest mistake that they can take to social media and ask for their funds to be returned.
Through tinkering with some code in the smart contract or something like that?
This goes to show how so many of the so-called decentralized exchanges are not actually decentralized.
If the exchange was decentralized as they claim and is using a smart contract to execute trades, deposits and withdrawals, then there was probably a mistake or bug with their exchange and like I said, there is a likelihood the person who the lucky chap traded with got screwed up. They probably just helplessly saw the 24 ETH get drained from their account instead of 24 usdt, otherwise, where else would the 24 ETH come from if not from a fellow trader
OP, if you don't mind, could you please share the name of the exchange?