Solana sandwich bot makes $30M from MEV arbitrage in two months

The infamous maximal extractible value (MEV) sandwich bot known as “arsc” has pocketed around $30 million from Solana users in the last two months through MEV attacks.

An MEV sandwich attack occurs when an attacker “sandwiches” a victim’s transaction between their own two transactions in order to manipulate the price and profit from the user. They profit by buying the victim’s token at a price cheaper than market value and then sell it in the same block.

Ben Coverston, founder of cryptocurrency firm MRGN Research, said in a June 15 post on X that this particular sandwich bot, known as “arsc,” has “gone to great lengths” to avoid attention while raking in profits from Solana network users.

One of the bot’s largest wallet addresses is “9973h…zyWp6,” which Coverston believes is primarily being 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 a little over $19 million in total funds, which includes $17 million worth of Solana (SOL $148) tokens and $1.1 million in Circle’s USD Coin (USDC $1.00) stablecoin.

It also holds small amounts of wrapped-SOL (wSOL), Cringe Coin (CRINGE) and Kabosu (KAB) are also held.

Another main wallet, with address “Ai4zq…VXKKT,” is far more active in decentralized finance activities, Coverston said. “It’s gradually converting SOL into USDC via JUP DCA and holds significant positions in Kamino and various LSTs.”

It holds over $9.9 million in total funds, which mostly comprise non-SOL tokens, according to SolanaFM.

Coverston identified a third wallet address “BCbrp…vi58q,” which he believes is arsc’s “main SOL bank” as it uses dozens of different signers and tippers to commit the sandwich attacks.

The three wallets hold a combined $29.8 million at current prices and Coveston believes the operator behind arsc seems to be trying to keep 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 often use intelligent algorithms to identify and exploit these opportunities for profit. They are a common activity among maximal extractible value bots on Ethereum too.

Over $1.38 billion had been wiped from “well-meaning” Ethereum users on or before April 2023, according to MEVBlocker.