📣 Solana validator extracts $60M with MEV Sandwich Attacks in a month – Should you be worried?
More controversy looms over Solana’s (SOL) decentralized finance (DeFi) as the crypto community discusses Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) tactics.
According to sources, a single Solana validator has extracted over $60 million from “Sandwich Attacks” in a month. This was done using Solana’s blockchain architecture – which facilitates MEV activities like sandwich attacks – to its benefit and users’ harm.
The onchain and DeFi analyst, core developer of DefiLlama, 0xngmi, commented on the matter, highlighting the $60 million profit. “And that’s only profits,” he added. “Total user losses are higher because you need to include validator bribes,” the transaction priority fees users have to pay.
🔸 Arsc: The Solana validator profiting from MEV sandwich attacks
Essentially, the discussion gained traction once Ben, the core developer of Temporal (@temporal_xyz), posted about the matter on December 10. Ben revealed three accounts linked to Arsc that are actively used to carry out the attacks and stake the profits.
According to the post, Arsc is a Solana validator that uses its block-producing privileges to front-run users with a sandwich attack bot, aiming to increase its revenue from Maximum Extractable Value tactics.
💬 MILLIONS of dollars in MEV are siphoned away DAILY by vpe (aka arsc), the top sandwich bot. But the worst part? This isn’t just about MEV—it’s about centralization of MEV. And it’s the greatest threat to Solana’s decentralization I’ve seen.Solana’s volume is skyrocketing, and… — Ben ⌛ (@HypoNyms) December 10, 2024
As a solution to the problem, Ben proposes either whitelisting/blacklisting “good/bad” validators or using a Public mempool. Both solutions, however, involve some sort of centralized coordination and received criticism from other experts and commentators.