Ever wonder why your crypto trade cost more than expected? Invisible bots might be stealing from you right now!
Imagine you’re in line at a store about to buy a limited item. Someone sees your order, cuts in front, buys it first, then sells it back to you at a higher price. That’s exactly what a sandwich attack is! Bots watch pending transactions, jump ahead of yours, and profit at your expense.
Here’s how it works: When you submit a trade on a decentralized exchange, it sits in a waiting room called the mempool before being confirmed. MEV bots – that stands for Maximal Extractable Value – scan this waiting room for profitable opportunities. They spot your trade, pay extra gas to go first, buy the token you want, your trade goes through at a worse price, then they immediately sell for instant profit. You got “sandwiched” between their two trades!
This happens millions of times daily, costing regular traders billions of dollars every year. It’s not illegal – it’s just how blockchain works, but it definitely isn’t fair.
How to protect yourself? Use DEXs with MEV protection like Flashbots or private transactions. Set lower slippage tolerance to make your trade less attractive to bots. Trade during low-activity hours, or use limit orders instead of market orders.
Remember: the blockchain is transparent, which means bots can see everything. Trade smart, and don’t let invisible robots eat your profits!
