A Clever MEV Bot Makes a Staggering $1.7 Million from a Suspected Mistaken Transaction

A Clever MEV Bot Makes a Staggering $1.7 Million from a Suspected Mistaken Transaction

A Clever MEV Bot Makes a Staggering $1.7 Million from a Suspected Mistaken Transaction

MEV Robot Earns $1.73 Million in Single Trade

According to Cointelegraph, a MEV robot based on Solana successfully earned approximately $1.7 million from a problematic trade, in which a trader took on significant slippage to purchase $9 million worth of the meme coin Dogwifhat (WIF).

MEV robots are automated programs used to scan blockchain networks, identify profitable trading opportunities, and execute these orders automatically. According to data from Solscan, the MEV robot operated by 2fast used 703 SOL tokens to exchange for 490,000 WIF tokens, and then exchanged the same amount of WIF tokens for 19,035 SOL tokens in the same transaction bundle, resulting in a net profit of $1.73 million.

The MEV robot utilized a tool developed by Jito Labs, the development department of Jito, a Solana liquidity staking protocol. This tool operates similarly to the MEV infrastructure project Flashbots on the Ethereum network, allowing robots to search for maximum extractable value and bid to include transactions in bundles.

How did the arbitrage trade occur?

This sudden arbitrage opportunity arose after a trader named “zeroxtrading.sol” executed a trade in which they purchased $8.9 million worth of WIF tokens. As this large transaction took place in a low-liquidity pool, the order was executed at a price of approximately $3 per WIF token, which was about 1400% higher than the token’s value at the time. After the transaction was completed, the price of WIF tokens immediately plummeted, causing the trader to lose 92% of their funds.

Anonymous developer Pland stated on X platform on Thursday (11th) that the MEV robot used a relatively simple “backrunning” strategy to arbitrage from the trader who executed the WIF order in the “most inefficient way”. Backrunning is considered less harmful to the blockchain network as it only captures arbitrage opportunities generated by large erroneous pricing trades and does not affect the original trade. Backrunning stands in contrast to the more malicious “sandwich attacks,” which involve inserting an order between two transactions and can result in the repricing of the initial bid, often causing losses for blockchain users.

Related reports: “The Next LSD-Level Opportunity? In-depth Analysis of the MEV Track and Outlook,” “Report Claims MEV Robot Jaredfromsubway.eth Earned $34 Million in Three Months! Peers Question: Not That Much!” “Understanding Maximum Extractable Value and Incentive Reallocation: How Flashbots Mitigate ‘Price Bidding’ Wars?”