An unknown Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot operator made well over a million dollars this week by launching “sandwich attacks” on purchasers and sellers of two new meme coins.
According to an April 19 tweet from nonfungible token (NFT) data platform Sealaunch, the wallet address linked to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain “jaredfromsubway.eth” profited $950,000 from the sandwich attacks on April 18 and profited about $300,000 and $400,000 on April 17 and 19, respectively.
The bot’s ENS domain is most likely a play on the popular sandwich chain and its notorious former spokesperson Jared Fogle. The MEV bot spent 7% of all Ethereum gas fees in 24 hours between April 18 and 19, according to a separate publication by Sealaunch.
According to crypto researcher Matt Willemsen, a substantial chunk of the gains came from attacks on trading activities connected to two new meme coins, Pepe (PEPE) and Wojak (WOJAK), which helped catapult jaredfromsubway.eth to become the greatest gas guzzler over the last day and week:
Sandwich attacks occur when an attacker “sandwiches” a victim’s transaction between two of their own to manipulate the price and profit from the user.This is possible because the victim’s transaction is initially transferred to the mempool, where it awaits inclusion in the next block. Meanwhile, the attacker creates two transactions, one with a high gas fee to guarantee it is accepted first and one with a reduced gas fee to ensure it is accepted after the victim’s transaction.
The attacker gains by purchasing the victim’s token at a lower price than market value and then selling it within the same block, pocketing the difference between the transaction revenue and the gas fees. According to data given by Thomas Mattimore, the Reserve Protocol’s head of platform, the enormous revenues earned by jaredfromsubway.eth came from approximately $1.2 million spent on gas fees between April 18 and 19.
According to Sealaunch, the MEV bot operator has spent over $7 million in gas expenses across 180,000 transactions. While some find the MEV bot’s domain name and actions amusing, not everyone is.
One analyst at the on-chain analytics startup Glassnode questioned the “value” of the effort done by jaredfromsubway.eth for the globe. Other Twitter users took it a step further, venting their rage and frustration at the MEV bot operator.
MEV bots have extracted more than $1.38 billion from Ethereum users attempting to trade, offer liquidity, and manufacture NFTs, according to MEV Blocker. Several MEV Block projects have been established recently to assist Ethereum users in protecting themselves from sandwich attacks.
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