The famous and well-known Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) sandwich robot gets its name
The popular maximum extractable value (MEV) sandwich bot, known as “arsc,” has stolen approximately $30 million from Solana users over the past two months through MEV attacks.
A MEV sandwich attack occurs when an attacker “places” the victim’s transaction between two of their own in order to manipulate the price and take advantage of the user. They profit by buying the victim’s token at below market value and then reselling it in the same block.
This sandwich bot, known as “arsc,” “went to great lengths” to avoid attention while extracting profits from users of the Solana network, said Ben Coverstone, founder of the cryptocurrency company MRGN Research, in a June 15 article on X.
One of the bot’s largest wallet addresses is “9973h…zyWp6,” which Coverston says is primarily used for cold storage.
“It is completely inactive and, judging by its behavior, it is almost certainly a cold, closed wallet,” Coverstone said.
According to the Solana Explorer website, SolanaFM, the wallet contains just over $19 million in total funds, including $17 million in Solana tokens (SOL) and $1.1 million in Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) .
It also contains small amounts of Wrapped SOL (wSOL), Cringe (CRINGE), and Kabosu (KAB).
The other main wallet, titled “Ai4zq…VXKKT,” is much more active in decentralized finance activities, Coverstone said. “It gradually converts SOL to USDC via JUP DCA and holds significant positions in Kamino and various LSTs.”
It holds over $9.9 million in total funds, consisting primarily of non-SOL tokens, according to SolanaFM.
Coverston identified the third wallet address “BCbrp…vi58q,” which he claims is the ARSC’s “main SOL bank,” using dozens of different signers and flippers to commit sandwich attacks.
The three wallets contain a total of $29.8 million at current prices, and Coveston believes the operator behind ASC appears to be trying to keep a low profile.
“They don’t seem to be attracting attention because they have recently gone to great lengths to hide their activities and profits.”
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MEV sandwich robots often use intelligent algorithms to identify and exploit these profit opportunities. This is also a popular activity among bots with maximum extractable value on Ethereum.
More than $1.38 billion has been wiped from “bona fide” Ethereum users by April 2023 at the latest, according to MEVBlocker.
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