The notorious MEV sandwich bot known as “arsc” has accumulated around $30 million from Solana users over the past two months through MEV attacks.
An MEV sandwich attack involves an attacker sandwiching a victim’s transaction between their own two transactions, manipulating the price to profit from the user.
The attacker buys the victim’s token at a below-market price and then sells it within the same block at a higher price.
Ben Coverston, founder of cryptocurrency firm MRGN Research, stated in a June 15 post on X that the sandwich bot arsc has “gone to great lengths” to avoid detection while extracting profits from Solana network users.
One of the bot’s largest wallet addresses is “9973h…zyWp6,” which Coverston believes is mainly used for cold storage.
“It is quite inactive and, judging by its behavior, is almost certainly a locked-down, cold wallet,” Coverston said.
According to Solana explorer site SolanaFM, the wallet holds over $19 million in total funds, including $17 million in Solana’s SOL tokens and $1.1 million in Circle’s USD Coin stablecoin.
It also contains small amounts of wrapped-SOL (wSOL), Cringe Coin (CRINGE), and Kabosu (KAB).
Another significant wallet, with the address “Ai4zq…VXKKT,” is more active in decentralized finance activities.
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Coverston said, “It’s gradually converting SOL into USDC via JUP DCA and holds significant positions in Kamino and various LSTs.”
This wallet holds over $9.9 million, primarily in non-SOL tokens, as per SolanaFM.
Coverston identified a third wallet address, “BCbrp…vi58q,” which he believes serves as arsc’s “main SOL bank,” using numerous signers and tippers to execute the sandwich attacks.
The three wallets collectively hold $29.8 million at current prices.
Coverston believes the operator behind arsc is attempting to maintain a low profile.
“It seems they don’t enjoy the attention, as they’ve recently gone to great lengths to hide their activities and profits.”
MEV sandwich bots frequently employ advanced algorithms to spot and exploit these opportunities for profit. This practice is also common among MEV bots on Ethereum.
Over $1.38 billion had been extracted from Ethereum users by MEV bots by April 2023, according to MEVBlocker.
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