A trading bot with a subway theme gains millions via "sandwich" attacks

 A trading bot with a subway theme gains millions via "sandwich" attacks

 

Theme

Indicate the ratio. In its shortest term, 250 meters to 3 meters 

 

The finest day for the unknown MEV bot operator was April 18, when he made roughly $950,000.

 

 

 

By conducting "sandwich attacks" against purchasers and sellers of two new meme coins, an anonymous Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot operator has made well over $1 million this week.

 

 

 

According to a tweet from nonfungible token data platform Sealaunch on April 19, the wallet address associated with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain "jaredfromsubway.eth" earned $950,000 on April 18 from the sandwich assaults and roughly $300,000 and $400,000 on April 17 and 19, respectively.

 

 

 

The ENS domain used by the bot is probably a mock reference to the well-known sandwich chain and its infamous former spokesperson, Jared Fogle.

 

 

 

The MEV bot spent 7% of all Ethereum gas fees in a 24-hour period between April 18 and 19, according to a separate publication by Sealaunch.

 

 

 

When an attacker "sandwiches" a victim's transaction between their own two transactions in an effort to manipulate the price and make money off the user, this is known as a sandwich attack.

 

 

 

The victim's transaction is initially routed to the mempool, where it waits to be added to the following block, making this conceivable. The attacker simultaneously sets a high gas fee transaction to ensure it is accepted first and a lesser gas fee transaction to guarantee it is accepted after the victim's transaction.

 

 

 

The attacker makes money by purchasing the victim's token below market value, selling it within the same block, and pocketing the difference between the transaction's income and the gas costs.

 

 

 

 

Thomas Mattimore, head of platform at the Reserve Protocol, presented statistics that showed that approximately $1.2 million was spent on gas costs between April 18 and 19. This is how jaredfromsubway.eth was able to pocket such huge gains.

 

 

 

According to Sealaunch, the MEV bot operator has spent over $7 million on gas fees over 180,000 transactions.

 

 

 

Although some people find amusement in the MEV bot's domain name and behaviors, not everyone does.

 

 

 

The "value" of the work that jaredfromsubway.eth is doing for the world was questioned by an analyst with the on-chain analytics company Glassnode.

 

 

 

Other Twitter users went a step farther by criticizing and expressing their anger at the MEV bot operator.