Solana MEV Sandwich Bots
Summary
Solana MEV sandwich bots are automated programs that exploit Solana's transaction ordering mechanisms to front-run and back-run retail user trades, extracting an estimated $370 million to $500 million from users between January 2024 and May 2025. The practice has drawn enforcement responses from the Solana Foundation, Jito Labs, and Marinade Finance, and is the subject of an active federal class-action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York naming Pump.fun, Solana Labs, and related entities. While coordinated countermeasures reduced attack profitability by an estimated 60-70% in 2025, attacks continue and disproportionately harm memecoin traders using high slippage settings on Raydium and Pump.fun.
Connected Entities
3 entities · 2 linked investigations- DeezNode→associated with→Solana MEV Sandwich Bots(80%)
- Jito Labs→associated with→Solana MEV Sandwich Bots(85%)
- + 13 more
Timeline(14 events)
2022-11-01
Jito Labs launches public mempool for Solana, enabling searchable pending transaction flow that bot operators later exploit for sandwich attacks.
2024-01-10
MEV back-run bot extracts approximately $1.79 million in profit from a single $8.9 million DogWifHat (WIF) purchase, later cited as a catalyst for Jito's mempool shutdown.
2024-03-08
Jito Labs announces shutdown of its public mempool after six weeks of failed technical attempts to block sandwich bundles.
2024-06-10
Solana Foundation removes approximately 32 validator operators from its Delegation Program for running private mempools enabling sandwich attacks; Tim Garcia calls decisions 'final.'
2024-06-15
MRGN Research founder Ben Coverston publicly identifies the 'arsc' MEV sandwich bot operator, revealing approximately $30 million in profits extracted over two months via wallets holding approximately $29.8 million.
2024-10-01
October data shows $3.2 million extracted from 202,000+ Solana victims in a single month during a documented resurgence of sandwich activity.
2024-11-01
November 2024 peaks as the highest-extraction month on record: nearly 600,000 SOL extracted despite DEX volume being roughly half of January 2024 levels.
2024-12-07
30-day documented run begins for the vpeNAL DeezNode sandwich bot: 1.55 million transactions, 88.9% success rate, 65,880 SOL ($13.43M) profit.
2024-12-09
DeezNode validator stake peaks at 802,500 SOL (~$168.5M delegated value), with 19.89% sourced from Marinade's mSOL liquid staking pool.
2025-01-05
Helius publishes its Solana MEV Report attributing nearly half of all Solana sandwich attacks to the single vpeNAL/DeezNode program.
2025-05-01
JitoSOL Blacklist Committee bans 15 additional validators; Marinade Finance blacklists 50+ validators protecting an alleged $2 billion in delegated stake; Sandwiched.me reports $370-500M extracted over 16 months.
2025-07-22
Consolidated amended class-action complaint filed in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) against Pump.fun, Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, Jito Labs, and executives, alleging $4-5.5 billion in user harm under securities law and RICO.
2025-12-09
SDNY Judge Colleen McMahon grants plaintiffs permission to amend complaint, admitting 5,000+ internal chat logs from a confidential informant as new evidence of alleged MEV manipulation at token launches.
2025-12-24
Reports indicate coordinated 2025 ecosystem actions reduced sandwich attack profitability by an estimated 60-70% and reduced front-running user complaints by approximately 60% across major Solana DEXs.
Decision Log
- hash: 4L6UfcN8jEhZMgL45SqeU1UBgvXUiXD1szGVcrj7g9H7
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/25/2026, 7:18:58 PM
last updated: 5/26/2026, 3:49:41 AM
avoid.net — verified advice for a post-truth world