The popular Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot jaredfromsubway.eth has made a comeback with enhanced capabilities and sophisticated strategies to exploit DeFi protocols.
MEV tracking platform EigenPhi was the first to report on the return of the MEV bot on August 20. EigenPhi noticed its rampage across different on-chain trading platforms, which led to its release of a report on the bot’s comeback.
Jaredfromsubway.eth gives out $2.2 million in profit
EigenPhi noted in their report that the bot’s profit and trading volume have plummeted to zero since August 14. However, as per their analysis by the Bot Dune dashboard, in the first two weeks of August, the bot gave out 851 ETH. As per the current market price, this is approximately $2.2 million.
The bot’s primary way of working is through sandwich attacks. Sandwich attacks involve placing transactions before and after a target transaction. This is done with the goal of manipulating prices.
Even though EigenPhi noticed a drop in trading volume, Jared hasn’t stopped making sandwiches. They identified an emerging MEV contract that is rampaging with all kinds of new on-chain trade squeezing methods.
New MEV bot uses new tricks like adding liquidity
Source: EigenPhi
The new MEV bot employs new techniques, which include the addition and removal of liquidity in DEX pools as part of their strategy. This makes it difficult for analysts to track the bot’s movements. Using the liquidity manipulation technique, Jared 2.0 can easily carry out attacks that are difficult to identify.
“Jared 2.0 would use adding liquidity transactions as the front piece and/or the centerpiece and removing liquidity transactions as the back piece. The combination can be various, putting several transactions in between, becoming sandwich attack victims,” EignePhi said.
Data from EigenPhi also shows that sandwich attack volume has surged past $17 billion in the last month. The name ‘jaredfromsubway.eth’ was inspired by Jared Fogle, who was a former fast food chain Subway spokesperson. Fogle was convicted in 2015 for child pornography and his pedophile activities. He was then sentenced to 15 years of jail time.