Sandwiched.wtf: Track MEV Bot Losses on Uniswap

Miner Extractable Value (MEV) represents a critical vulnerability in decentralized finance ecosystems, particularly on the Ethereum network where platforms like Uniswap operate. MEV refers to the profit that miners, validators, or other privileged protocol actors can extract by manipulating transaction ordering within blocks they generate. This manipulation goes beyond traditional transaction fees and block rewards, encompassing gains from strategically including, excluding, or reordering transactions to their advantage.

The most common manifestation of MEV exploitation is the ‘sandwich attack,’ where automated bots detect pending trades on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and execute two transactions that wrap around the user’s trade. These bots first buy the asset the user is purchasing, driving up the price, then sell immediately after the user’s transaction completes, profiting from the artificial price movement they created. This sophisticated form of front-running occurs because these bots can monitor the public mempool and react faster than human traders.

Sandwiched.wtf addresses this growing problem by providing traders with detailed analytics about their sandwich attack losses. The platform, a community project by Alchemist, specifically focuses on Uniswap v2 transactions, allowing users to connect their wallet or enter a wallet address to analyze their trading history. The tool drills down to individual transactions, showing exactly when each sandwich attack occurred, which tokens were involved, and the precise financial impact.

The calculation methodology employed by Sandwiched.wtf converts all losses into ETH equivalent using CoinGecko APIs for real-time pricing. This means the total loss figure represents the cumulative profit extracted by all sandwich bots from a user’s transactions, with profits in ETH added directly and other tokens converted at current market rates. Importantly, this conversion method means that the reported loss amount for the same set of sandwich attacks can fluctuate over time as token prices change relative to ETH.

By providing this granular data, Sandwiched.wtf enables traders to assess their vulnerability patterns across different dates and transactions. The platform’s straightforward interface displays comprehensive information about each sandwiched trade, giving users unprecedented visibility into what was previously an invisible tax on their DeFi activities.

Crypto trading bots have become increasingly sophisticated, operating 24/7 to exploit market inefficiencies that human traders might miss. While some bots serve legitimate purposes like arbitrage between exchanges, the MEV-focused bots represent a more predatory category. These automated systems constantly monitor the Ethereum network’s public mempool, scanning for profitable opportunities like large pending trades on Uniswap that they can sandwich for guaranteed profits.

The fundamental vulnerability lies in the public nature of blockchain transactions before they’re confirmed. When users submit trades to Uniswap, these transactions become visible in the public mempool before miners include them in blocks. This visibility window gives MEV bots the opportunity they need to analyze the transaction’s potential impact and execute their sandwich strategy. The speed and efficiency of these bots make manual detection and prevention nearly impossible for individual traders.

While Sandwiched.wtf excels at identifying the problem of sandwich attacks, it doesn’t provide protection against them. For traders seeking solutions, platforms like MistX.io offer technological safeguards. MistX.io functions as a swapping platform that utilizes Flashbots technology to prevent transaction exposure to public mempools. By routing transactions through private channels and directly tipping miners, MistX.io eliminates the visibility window that sandwich bots exploit.

The Flashbots approach represents a paradigm shift in how transactions are handled on the Ethereum network. Instead of broadcasting transactions to the public mempool where they’re vulnerable to front-running, Flashbots-enabled platforms like MistX.io submit transactions directly to miners through private communication channels. This method ensures that transactions only become visible when they’re already included in a block, effectively neutralizing sandwich attacks and other forms of MEV exploitation.

As DeFi continues to evolve, the challenges posed by front-running, Flashbots, and MEV extraction remain significant concerns for the ecosystem. Tools like Sandwiched.wtf provide crucial transparency, while solutions like MistX.io offer practical protection. For traders operating on Uniswap and other Ethereum-based DEXs, understanding these dynamics and implementing appropriate safeguards has become essential for preserving trading profits in an increasingly competitive and automated environment.