In the past 24 hours, the operator of the MEV bot jaredfromsubway.eth has expended over 215 ETH (~$830,200) on Ethereum gas fees.
This amount represents nearly 1.6% of the total, making it the largest fee payer on the network.
Since February 2023, the bot has spent a total of 77,115 ETH or $176.7 million on gas, based on the cryptocurrency’s price at the time of transactions.
The software operator claims in the account description on X that it generates “hundreds of ETH daily” through sandwich attacks.
The bot primarily targets meme coin traders. For instance, one user noted that the script recently “brutally targeted” traders of a token issued in the name of TV star Caitlyn Jenner.
Jaredfromsubway.eth is absolutely brutalizing everyone swapping Caitlyn Jenner’s token lmao pic.twitter.com/LbtALm81pU
— Pop Punk (@PopPunkOnChain) May 30, 2024
To profit from sandwich attacks, the bot must place two of its transactions immediately before and after the targeted trade. Achieving this requires paying block creators for priority.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has identified MEV as one of the three main threats to decentralization in the network, alongside liquid staking and the cost of running a full node.
The EU regulator has labeled the technology a striking example of market abuse.