MEV Bot Accident: $400,000 in Wrong Transactions

This article briefly:

· MEV robots lost over $400,000 due to configuration errors.

· Bot sending funds to wrong Uniswap pool.

· Validators earned over 80ETH from bot trading.

A few hours ago, the maximum extractable value (MEV) sniper bot malfunctioned, causing users who sent money to it to lose more than $400,000.

Blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence reported that several users of the Alpha group sent 160 ETH to the bot to block the release of Poo Finance tokens.

MEV robot accident

These users paid a bribe of 80 ETH for priority access to be included in the first block transaction.

This means they invested 240 ETH worth $440,000 to snipe Poo Finance tokens.

MEV Robot Trading (Source: Arkham Intelligence)

MEV bot targeting wrong pool

However, the bot did not function as expected, sending 160 ETH to the wrong Uniswap V3 pool. Arkham said the bot sent the funds after detecting a “liquidity-increasing” transaction from the developer.

While the Poo Finance developers added 40 ETH of liquidity to the main pool, the bot’s purchases were directed at smaller pools with less token supply.

Typically, transactions are organized by transaction fees, with priority given to those paying higher fees. MEV robots can access this transaction data to maximize profits through arbitrage or front-running.

This means that an 80 ETH bribe resulted in the MEV robot buying 4 ETH worth of Poo Finance tokens.

MEV Robot Trading (Source: Arkham Intelligence)

To make matters worse, all 160 ETH was transferred to the Uniswap router. Excess ETH was not refunded due to the functionality used for this token swap.

Another bot sweeps excess ETH on Uniswap

Another bot, 0x9dd, cleared excess ETH from Uniswap routers. The bot paid 0.43 ETH, worth about 800 ETH, to claim an additional $196,000 in the router.

Meanwhile, the original bot holds over 6 billion POO tokens, worth around 3 ETH, after spending over $400,000.

The biggest winners from these transactions are validators who are incentivized to prioritize transactions.

Meanwhile, Jared, the MEV bot from thesubway.eth, made millions earlier this year through sandwich attacks and arbitrage opportunities. On April 19, the bot spent over $1 million in gas fees, profiting from several memecoin transactions.