In a shocking 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 maximum withdrawable value (MEV) bot that has been harassing hackers. traders on Ethereum network.
Jaredfromsubway.eth MEV Bot wreaking havoc on Ethereum
The signal about the $1.5 million funds being wrongly transferred to the MEV bot was brought to light by 0xCuteSocks on Twitter.
someone accidentally sent $1.5 million worth of wbtc and weth to jaredfromsubway.eth
you can’t make this up 😂 pic.twitter.com/q0dxrXXQjF
— 0xLindosCalcetines (@0xLindosCalcetines) May 5, 2023
While the bot has been blamed for walling off traders and contributing to rising ETH gas fees, it has also consumed more than 7% of gas fees in the last 24 hours.
According to Dune’s analysis datathe MEV bot used 455 ETH between April 18 and 19, which represents around 7% of all the gas used on Ethereum during that time.
Furthermore, reports suggest that the bot has spent around 3,720 ETH or $950,000 in the past two months while making approximately 180,000 transactions.
A MEV bot is eating your lunch.
jaredfromsubway.eth MEV bot is the largest consumer of ETH gas in the last 24 hours, spent 455 ETH ($950k) and used 7% of total network gas
In the last 2 months he spent more than 3,720ETH ($7M) in gas fees and made more than 180k transactions pic.twitter.com/IGMJY7skkq
— sealaunch.xyz (@SeaLaunch_) April 18, 2023
On April 17, the bot made a profit of around $250,000, which increased to around $400,000 two days later on April 19.
The MEV bot, which has been wreaking havoc among traders on the Ethereum network, is also responsible for draining millions of investors.
MEV bots on Ethereum captured $1.035 million in profits in 11,640 transactions today, a record in the last month, which includes $940,000 in profits via sandwich attacks. The MEV bot controlled by jaredfromsubway.eth captured a profit of over $710,000 after capturing…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 19, 2023
This has been a source of concern for traders, most of whom are concerned about which tokens to avoid.
Some have even called for a MEV blocker to prevent a sandwich attack, especially for meme tokens like NEET, PEPE, and APED, among others.
funds refunded
While the MEV bot has been racking up big profits, the implementer had a change of heart after the erroneous transfer of $1.5 million.
A Twitter user was able to verify that the $1.5 million in tokens were successfully refunded after the sender appealed to the owner of the MEV bot.
#PeckShieldAlert Jaredfromsubway.eth has returned $1.5 million in $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 major problem 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 for profit, even at the expense of someone’s mistake.
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.
This is because there is no money-back guarantee considering the immutable nature of cryptocurrency transfers.
As such, merchants are advised to protect themselves from potential attacks by using an MEV blocker and avoiding vulnerable tokens.
Featured Image from Canva, Chart from TradingView
