Scale or Die at Accelerate 2025: The State of Solana MEV

Solana's MEV landscape is evolving rapidly, with new data revealing shocking trends in sandwich attacks and validator behavior. This groundbreaking analysis exposes the scale of MEV extraction and its implications for the Solana ecosystem.

Summary

The presentation at Accelerate 2025 by Chris Chang and George Datskos from Ghostlogs provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) on the Solana blockchain. The speakers delve into various forms of MEV, with a particular focus on sandwich attacks and their impact on the ecosystem.

The talk covers the evolution of MEV on Solana, from the launch of Jito's public mempool to its subsequent shutdown and the emergence of private mempools. The presenters introduce sandwich.me, a tool for tracking and analyzing MEV activities, and share insights from their extensive data analysis of over 8.5 billion trades and $1 trillion in DEX volume.

A significant portion of the presentation is dedicated to sandwich attacks, revealing that bots have extracted between $370 million to $500 million over the past 16 months. The speakers also discuss the adaptation of MEV bots to countermeasures and the role of validators in facilitating these attacks.

The presentation concludes with an analysis of validator behavior, introducing the concept of "sandwich rate" to identify potentially malicious validators. The speakers also discuss mitigation strategies and future developments in MEV tracking and analysis.

Key Points:

MEV Forms and Impact

MEV on Solana primarily takes the form of arbitrage, liquidity sniping, liquidation, and sandwich attacks. While these can't be eliminated entirely, proper data analysis allows for better understanding and potential mitigation. MEV affects various stakeholders in the Solana ecosystem, including retail traders who may lose money due to hidden slippage, founders concerned about the trust in their protocols, and researchers studying both benign and malicious MEV activities.

The impact of MEV extends beyond financial losses. It can erode trust in protocols and the overall Solana ecosystem. However, some forms of MEV, like arbitrage and liquidation, can be considered benign and even necessary for maintaining market efficiency and protocol health.

Evolution of MEV on Solana

The MEV landscape on Solana has undergone significant changes since late 2022. In November 2022, Jito launched a popular public mempool, which provided easy access to pending transactions. However, concerns about sandwich attacks led to its shutdown in March 2024. This event marked a shift towards private mempools, making MEV activities less transparent but still prevalent.

In response to these changes, tools like sandwich.me were developed to track and analyze MEV activities. The first version, launched in June 2024, focused solely on sandwich attacks. Later versions expanded to include more comprehensive data on arbitrage and other MEV forms. This evolution highlights the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between MEV extractors and those trying to mitigate its effects.

Sandwich Attacks Analysis

Sandwich attacks have emerged as a particularly concerning form of MEV on Solana. In these attacks, bots front-run and back-run user transactions, profiting from the price impact of the user's trade. The analysis presented shows that sandwich bots have extracted between $370 million to $500 million over a 16-month period.

Unlike arbitrage bots that typically pay 50-60% of their profits in tips to validators, sandwich bots only pay 15-20%, keeping a larger share of the profits. This discrepancy highlights the more extractive nature of sandwich attacks compared to other forms of MEV. The prevalence of sandwich attacks doesn't always correlate with overall DEX volume, but rather with specific events like token launches or market volatility.

Validator Behavior and MEV

The presentation introduces the concept of "sandwich rate" as a metric to identify potentially malicious validators. This rate is calculated by dividing the number of blocks containing at least one sandwich attack by the total blocks produced by a validator over a 30-day period. The analysis revealed several outlier validators with significantly higher sandwich rates than the average.

Interestingly, the data showed that some validators with high sandwich rates received a significant portion of their stake from popular stake pools like Marinade Finance. This raises questions about the responsibility of stake pools in ensuring the integrity of the validators they support. The presenters also noted the emergence of new validators quickly gaining stake and engaging in sandwich attacks, suggesting a potential cycle of MEV extraction and increased staking power.

Mitigation Strategies and Future Developments

Various mitigation strategies have been implemented or proposed to combat MEV, particularly sandwich attacks. These include removing stake from malicious validators, blacklisting nefarious validators by entities like Jito and Marinade, and developing validator clients that remove sandwich attacks from transaction bundles. Additionally, features like vote accounts and the "Jito don't front" sentinel have been introduced to make it harder for transactions to be included in bundles used for sandwich attacks.

Looking ahead, the presenters outlined upcoming features for sandwich.me, including accounting for failed transactions in profit calculations, data on liquidity snipes, and API access for researchers. These developments aim to provide greater transparency and enable more comprehensive analysis of MEV activities on Solana.

Facts + Figures

• Over the past 16 months, sandwich bots have extracted between $370 million to $500 million from Solana users.
• Sandwich.me analyzed 8.5 billion trades and about $1 trillion of DEX volume on Solana.
• Arbitrage bots typically pay 50-60% of their profits in tips to validators, while sandwich bots only pay 15-20%.
• The average "sandwich rate" for validators is around 5%, with some outliers reaching 30-60%.
• Wide or "blind" sandwiching has increased from about 1% to 30% of all sandwich attacks in recent months.
• Some validators with high sandwich rates received a significant portion of their stake from popular stake pools like Marinade Finance.
• One validator reduced its stake from 800,000 to 400,000 SOL after being identified as potentially malicious.
• Jito executed a governance proposal to blacklist nefarious validators in epoch 789.
• The presentation covered MEV data from January 2024 to May 2025, encompassing over 16 months of Solana network activity.

Top quotes

1. "MEV essentially is the profit that an attacker can extract by reordering or censoring or inserting into a block."
2. "Over the past 16 months, sandwich bots have made between $370 to $500 million."
3. "You can't really fix what you cannot see."
4. "Sandwich bots pay only 15% between 5% to 15% in tips and keep the rest for themselves. It's a lot less competitive."
5. "We create a simple but effective measure metric, which is called the sandwich rate."
6. "One can simply signal our new validators, go to stake marketplace, get their stake, and start conducting sandwiching attacks."
7. "At the end of the day, you really cannot fix what you cannot see."

Questions Answered

What is MEV in the context of Solana?

MEV, or Maximal Extractable Value, refers to the profit that can be extracted by reordering, censoring, or inserting transactions into a block on the Solana blockchain. Common forms of MEV on Solana include arbitrage, liquidity sniping, liquidation, and sandwich attacks. While some forms of MEV like arbitrage can be considered benign, others like sandwich attacks are more extractive and potentially harmful to users.

How much profit have sandwich bots made on Solana?

According to the analysis presented, sandwich bots have extracted between $370 million to $500 million over a 16-month period on Solana. The lower bound represents the USD value of the SOL tokens extracted from sandwich attacks, while the upper bound includes the USD value of atomic meme coin revenue made from these attacks. This significant amount highlights the scale of the issue and its impact on Solana users.

What is a sandwich attack?

A sandwich attack is a form of MEV where a bot identifies a user's transaction in a private mempool, then front-runs it by buying the asset before the user's transaction is executed. This action increases the price, causing the user to buy at a worse price. The bot then immediately sells after the user's transaction, profiting from the price difference. This type of attack results in worse execution for the user and extracts value from their trade.

How are validators involved in MEV extraction?

The analysis revealed that some validators may be facilitating MEV extraction, particularly sandwich attacks. By introducing a metric called "sandwich rate," the researchers identified outlier validators with significantly higher rates of blocks containing sandwich attacks. Some of these validators received substantial stake from popular stake pools, raising questions about the responsibility of stake pools in ensuring the integrity of the validators they support.

What measures are being taken to mitigate MEV on Solana?

Several mitigation strategies have been implemented or proposed to combat MEV on Solana. These include removing stake from malicious validators, blacklisting nefarious validators by entities like Jito and Marinade, and developing validator clients that remove sandwich attacks from transaction bundles. Additionally, features like vote accounts and the "Jito don't front" sentinel have been introduced to make it harder for transactions to be included in bundles used for sandwich attacks.

How can users protect themselves from sandwich attacks?

While it's challenging to completely avoid sandwich attacks, users can take some precautions. Setting appropriate slippage tolerances on trades can help mitigate the impact of sandwich attacks. Additionally, users should be aware of the risks when trading during periods of high volatility or during token launches, as these are prime opportunities for sandwich attacks. Using reputable decentralized exchanges and staying informed about MEV trends can also help users make more informed trading decisions.

What tools are available for tracking MEV on Solana?

The presentation introduced sandwich.me, a tool developed for tracking and analyzing MEV activities on Solana. This tool provides insights into arbitrage, sandwich attacks, and other forms of MEV. It allows users to visualize MEV trends, analyze validator behavior, and access detailed data on MEV extraction. The developers of sandwich.me are continually expanding its features, including plans to add data on liquidity snipes and API access for researchers.

How has the MEV landscape on Solana evolved over time?

The MEV landscape on Solana has undergone significant changes since late 2022. Initially, Jito's public mempool provided easy access to pending transactions, but concerns about sandwich attacks led to its shutdown in March 2024. This event sparked a shift towards private mempools, making MEV activities less transparent but still prevalent. The adaptation of MEV bots to new countermeasures and the development of tools like sandwich.me highlight the ongoing evolution of the MEV ecosystem on Solana.