💥💥💥 #Solana sandwich bot makes $30M from #MEV arbitrage in 2 months
The notorious maximal extractable value (MEV) sandwich bot, known as “arsc,” has extracted around $30 million from Solana users in the past two months through MEV attacks.
An MEV sandwich attack involves the attacker placing a victim’s transaction between their own two transactions to manipulate the price & profit from the user. The attacker buys the victim’s token at a price below market value and then sells it within the same block for a profit.
Ben Coverston, founder of cryptocurrency firm MRGN Research, revealed in a June 15 post on X that the “arsc” sandwich bot has been discreetly profiting from Solana network users. One of the bot’s main wallet addresses, “9973h…zyWp6,” is believed to be used primarily for cold storage. This wallet holds over $19 million in total funds, including $17 million worth of Solana (SOL) tokens and $1.1 million in Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) #stablecoin . It also contains small amounts of wrapped-SOL (wSOL), Cringe Coin (CRINGE), and Kabosu (KAB).
Another primary wallet, “Ai4zq…VXKKT,” is more active in decentralized finance (DeFi) activities. It is gradually converting SOL into USDC via JUP DCA and holds significant positions in Kamino and various liquid staking tokens (LSTs). This wallet contains over $9.9 million in non-SOL tokens.
Coverston identified a third wallet address, “BCbrp…vi58q,” which he believes is arsc’s main SOL bank. This wallet employs dozens of different signers and tippers to carry out the sandwich attacks.
In total, these three wallets hold approximately $29.8 million. Coverston suggests that the operator behind “arsc” appears to be maintaining a low profile.
MEV sandwich bots utilize sophisticated algorithms to detect & exploit these profit opportunities. This activity is common among maximal extractable value bots on #Ethereum as well. According to MEVBlocker, over $1.38 billion had been extracted from Ethereum users as of April 2023.
Source - cointelegraph.com
