Trader loses $2M due to same-block backrun exploit

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alex.shardLegendary
Posts: 1019 · Reputation: 5623
#1Jul 19, 2022, 01:58 AM
A trader swapped 1,126.44 ETH but ended up with only 5,776 LIT tokens. To put it simply: this trader traded over $2 million in Ether on a decentralized exchange and got stuck with just $14,500 in tokens after a router routed the order through a low-liquidity pool. This let an Ethereum block builder rake in a ton of profit off a same-block arbitrage.
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L0neDegenSenior Member
Posts: 331 · Reputation: 1464
#2Jul 19, 2022, 03:54 AM
That can be prevented if the trader knows the technicalities of the transaction. I guess he doesn't. And then we get surprised that the average Joe stays "on the safe side"... far from crypto. And we get surprised that some of those who give it a try get hacked, scammed or gets to a loss in a way or another. Then, since the extra-ordinary sells, we see this in the newspapers, not the millions of trades and billions of transactions that go through with no issues.
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p1x3l365Senior Member
Posts: 511 · Reputation: 1890
#3Jul 19, 2022, 05:00 AM
That's very unfortunate—a really big loss, especially if that money came from years of hard work. But why would someone use a DEX to swap such a huge amount? We all know these kinds of incidents can happen on decentralized exchanges. It seems the user may not have been fully aware of the risks or didn't carefully review the transaction details before signing it.
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fullnodeSenior Member
Posts: 222 · Reputation: 1515
#4Jul 19, 2022, 10:34 AM
Most DEXs and wallets try to protect users as much as possible from such extreme slippage and from MEV bots. This is not something that can happen so easily just by being careless. According to a representative of Titan Builder, they refunded 99% of the backrun value to the transaction originator. It is unclear to me who exactly got the refund because the address seems to belong to Gemini exchange. https://x.com/cryptoquantHQ/status/2074092559958196540
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raven1337Hero Member
Posts: 530 · Reputation: 3357
#5Jul 19, 2022, 03:05 PM
He should be fine if he was activating the MEV protection. The problem is that i guess his swap app didn't have it. So that's why MEV was backran him. This is also the reason why DEFI ain't perfect thing. There are still to many loopholes. that's why so many MEV bots exist with the purpose to steal others money. Hopefully, people will aware about how important the routing + MEV protection.
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SilentGuruSenior Member
Posts: 432 · Reputation: 1445
#6Jul 19, 2022, 07:27 PM
MEV bot is really a problem but why can't the DEX hard limit slippage and revert transactions? if a transaction is having more than 60% slippage let alone 90% I don't think anyone swapping intended it to be that way. The best solution for us right now if we are going to swap is not to swap huge amount in one go.
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WildBearSenior Member
Posts: 206 · Reputation: 1230
#7Jul 19, 2022, 08:05 PM
Traders like him need to look at the liquidity of what he's trying to trade with. Because that's the problem with most of them, it's sad that these traders are costing them so much money. He's probably not aware of MEV and just did the usual trade that the dexes shows to the users. And that's why they're also targeted by the hackers for many loopholes.
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