In the past two months, a bot dubbed the “sandwich bone” has amassed a significant amount of money by exploiting users of Solana (SOL). The robot operates by taking small amounts of money from transactions, which adds up quickly.
MEV Sandwich Attack
A MEV sandwich attack occurs when an attacker embeds a victim’s transaction between two of their own transactions. MEV stands for maximum extractable value. This allows the attacker to manipulate the user’s price and profits, effectively selling the coin at a profit. The purchase amount becomes lower than the actual market price.
The MEV sandwich attack has targeted Solana transactions, but it’s not unique to this cryptocurrency. Ethereum (ETH) has also been vulnerable to these types of bots, according to Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum.
According to Ben Coverston, founder of MRGN Research, the MEV bot known as arsc has generated approximately $30 million in the past one to two months. Coverston reported his findings on his X account.
“It seems they don’t like the attention as they have recently gone to great lengths to hide their activities and profits,” Coverston said.
MEV Bot Profits Divided Over 3 Different Wallets
Coverston analyzed the wallets used for the transactions, identifying three distinct wallets. The first, wallet 9973h, contains approximately $20 million. According to Coverston, this wallet is likely an encrypted cold wallet.
This wallet holds five different assets: Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), wrapped-SOL (wSOL), Cringe Coin (CRINGE), and Kabosu (KAB). Solana makes up the majority of the assets, worth $17 million, followed by $1.1 million in USDC. This information is based on data from SolanaFM, which shows the wallet’s current value to be around $18.2 million.
The second wallet, Ai4zq, is significantly more active according to Coverston. The third wallet, considered the “main SOL bank” for the bot, combined with the other two wallets, has a total value of close to $30 million.
