A sandwich attack is a specific MEV strategy where an attacker places one transaction before and one transaction after a victim’s trade to profit from induced price changes in decentralized exchanges.
Claim
Quotes that support claims
It occurs when a searcher detects a large pending trade on a decentralized exchange (DEX) and places a trade right before and right after it to benefit from an artificial price change
Sandwich attacks, in particular, could be considered manipulative under SEC Rule 10b-5 and CFTC Rule 180.1, exposing validators, builders, and searchers to potential legal consequences
In this maneuver, an MEV bot spots someone else’s intent to buy a coin and sets itself up to profit from the small price appreciation that the other person’s bid will likely cause. The bot jumps the line to purchase the coin at a fraction less, front-running the trade. Then, after the purchase by the mark in the middle goes through, the bot tops off the sandwich by automatically selling the token at a profit
Related topics
Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)
Referenced by
Tactics and mechanisms
Crypto
Data block
