Sandwich attacks impacted at least 35.5% of blocks on the BNB Chain in November of this year, a new record of malicious activity.
Nearly 700 sandwich bots were spotted on the BNB Chain in just a week, affecting over 43,000 decentralized exchange (DEX) traders.
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How Sandwich Bots Exploit BNB Chain
Data from Dune Analytics reveals that BNB Chain’s DEX trading volume for the week reached $9.232 million, with $1.322 million attributed to sandwich bots transactions.
Sandwich attacks are also known as front-running and are often seen in maximum extractable value (MEV) exploitation. To explain it simply (albeit not simple in practice), malicious actors are on the lookout for pending transactions. As soon as they spot one, they strategically place their own orders both before and after the target transaction to elevate the asset’s price. The rationale here is to manipulate the market price to allow the attacker to profit at the victim’s expense.
While front-running is a common MEV strategy, other methods like back-running and transaction ordering manipulation also occur. So, to sum up, the attacker’s first order increases the asset’s price, the target transaction is executed at the higher price, impacting the original trader’s outcome, and the attacker’s second order sells the asset —capturing a profit from the price difference.
The permissionless fashion and transparency within decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, particularly in decentralized exchanges, make them vulnerable to these attacks. This is because pending transactions visible in the mempool (memory pool) —where transactions await confirmation— are especially susceptible.
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While BNB Chain saw increased activity in November, Ethereum has experienced a decline in sandwich attacks since July. Ethereum’s affected blocks dropped from 62.9% to 40.2% over five months. However, attacks remain a concern, with over 12,000 DEX users impacted on Ethereum in the past month alone.
