In a surprising turn of events, someone accidentally sent over $1.5 million worth of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and wrapped Ethereum (WETH) to jaredfromsubway.eth, a high frequency, Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot that has been harassing traders on the Ethereum network.
Jaredfromsubway.eth MEV Bot Wreaking Havoc On Ethereum
The signal about the $1.5 million funds erroneously transferred to the MEV bot was brought to light by 0xCuteSocks on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/0xCuteSocks/status/1654519048338833408
While the bot has been blamed for sandwiching traders and contributing to the rise in ETH gas fees, it has also reportedly consumed over 7% of the gas fees in the last 24 hours.
According to Dune analytics data, the MEV bot used 455 ETH between April 18 and 19, which represents around 7% of all the gas used on Ethereum during that time.
Moreover, reports suggest that the bot has spent about 3,720 ETH or $950,000 in the past two months while performing roughly 180,000 transactions.
A MEV bot is eating your lunch.
jaredfromsubway.eth MEV bot is the top gas ETH spender in the last 24H, spending 455ETH ($950k) and using 7% of total gas of the network
In the last 2 months it spent more than 3.720ETH ($7M) in gas fees and performed more than 180k transactions pic.twitter.com/IGMJY7skkq
— sealaunch.xyz (@sealaunch_) April 18, 2023
On April 17, the bot made a profit of about $250,000, which surged to about $400,000 two days later on April 19.
The MEV bot, which has been causing havoc for traders on the Ethereum network, is also responsible for draining millions from investors.
MEV bots on Ethereum today captured $1.035 million in profits in 11,640 transactions, a record high over the past month, including $940,000 in profits through sandwich attacks. The MEV robot controlled by jaredfromsubway.eth captured a profit of more than $710,000 after capturing…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 19, 2023
This has been a source of concern for traders, most of whom are worried about which tokens to avoid.
Some have even been calling for an MEV blocker to avoid a sandwich attack, especially for meme tokens such as NEET, PEPE, and APED, among others.
Funds Refunded
While the MEV bot has been racking in huge profits, the deployer had a change of heart following the erroneous transfer of $1.5 million.
A Twitter user was able to verify that the $1.5 million worth of tokens were successfully refunded after the sender appealed to the owner of the MEV bot.
#PeckShieldAlert Jaredfromsubway.eth has returned $1.5M worth of $WBTC, $WETH and $USDC to 0x19aBe4…090, who accidentally sent funds to the MEV bothttps://t.co/MQLwKx5sV2https://t.co/MJbIoMrzMf pic.twitter.com/VehaSWfkqD
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 6, 2023
Still, the rise of MEV bots has become a significant issue in the crypto space, with some experts warning that the bots could threaten the security of the entire blockchain ecosystem.
While some bots operate in a legitimate capacity, others are designed to exploit vulnerabilities in the system to make a profit, even at the expense of someone’s error.
As the popularity of MEV bots continues to grow, traders need to be aware of the risks and take the necessary precautions to protect themselves from potential attacks.
It is so because there is no guarantee of a refund considering the immutable nature of crypto transfers.
As such, traders are advised to protect themselves from potential attacks by using an MEV blocker and avoiding vulnerable tokens.