Crypto Trader Loses $215K in Sandwich Attack: A Lesson in Digital Lunches! 🥪💸

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So, picture this: a crypto trader, all set to make a $220,764 stablecoin transfer on March 12, gets hit by a sandwich attack. And no, not the kind you eat for lunch! 🍔 They lost almost 98% of their value to a sneaky Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot. Talk about a bad day at the office!

In just eight seconds, our poor trader swapped $220,764 worth of USD Coin (USDC) for a measly $5,271 of Tether (USDT). The MEV bot was like, “Thanks for the free money!” and pocketed over $215,500. I mean, who knew bots could be so greedy? 🤖💰

According to the Ethereum block explorer, this little fiasco happened in the Uniswap v3’s USDC-USDT liquidity pool, where a whopping $19.8 million is locked up. It’s like a digital vault, but with less security than a teenager’s diary!

Michael Nadeau, the founder of The DeFi Report, explained that the MEV bot was so quick it swapped all the USDC liquidity out of the pool and then put it back in after the transaction. It’s like playing musical chairs, but the bot always wins! 🎶

And get this: the attacker tipped Ethereum block builder “bob-the-builder.eth” a cool $200,000 from the swap and still managed to profit $8,000. I guess that’s what you call a win-win, right? Or maybe just a “win” for the bot! 😂

DeFi researcher “DeFiac” speculated that this same trader, using different wallets, has been sandwich attacked six times. It’s like they’re collecting sandwich attack badges or something! 🥪🏅

On March 12, two of their wallets were also hit by an MEV bot sandwich attack at around 9:00 am UTC. The addresses “0xDDe…42a6D” and “0x999…1D215” lost $138,838 and $128,003, respectively. It’s like a bad sequel to a movie nobody wanted! 🎬

Some folks are even suggesting these trades could be attempts at money laundering. Because, you know, why not add a little drama to the crypto world? “If you have NK illicit funds, you could construct a very mev-able tx,” said 0xngmi, founder of crypto data dashboard DefiLlama. Sounds like a plot twist! 🕵️‍♂️

Initially, Nadeau criticized Uniswap, but later realized the transactions didn’t come from their front end, which has MEV protection. It’s like realizing your friend didn’t actually eat your sandwich after all! 🥪❌

After some clarification from Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, Nadeau backtracked on his criticisms. Because who doesn’t love a good redemption arc? 🎭

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2025-03-13 04:00