Curriculum·Graduate·G104
MEV Analysis
The MEV sandwich reversal of 3 April 2023. Sandwich bots make money by surrounding a victim's trade, buying just before it and selling just after to skim the price move they caused, and they had extracted value on Ethereum this way for years.
Start with lesson 14 lessons · about 2 hours · free account to read in full
Lesson 1 opens on
The MEV sandwich reversal, 3 April 2023
Sandwich bots on Ethereum make money by controlling order: they place a buy just before a victim's trade and a sell just after, capturing the price move the victim causes. For years this worked because the bots could position their transactions around the victim's. On 3 April 2023 the tables turned.
The lessons
- G104-01What MEV is, and where it lives in the blockDefine MEV as the value extractable by controlling the order of transactions in a blockabout 30 min · opens on The MEV sandwich reversal, 3 April 2023
- G104-02Reading a sandwichIdentify the three transactions of a sandwich and their positions around the victimabout 30 min · opens on The jaredfromsubway.eth sandwich bot, 2023
- G104-03Arbitrage, liquidations, and backrunningDistinguish the main non-sandwich MEV forms: arbitrage, liquidations, and general backrunningabout 31 min · opens on MakerDAO Black Thursday, 12 to 13 March 2020
- G104-04The MEV supply chain: builders, relays, and the reversalMap the MEV supply chain: searchers, builders, relays, and proposers, and who holds ordering powerabout 31 min · opens on MEV-boost relay censorship after the Tornado Cash sanctions, 2022 to 2023