Crypto trader gets sandwich attacked in stablecoin swap, loses $215K

Key Points

  • A crypto trader lost over $215,000 in a sandwich attack on March 12.
  • The attack occurred during a $220,764 stablecoin swap on Uniswap v3's USDC-USDT liquidity pool.
  • The MEV bot front-ran the transaction, swapping out all USDC liquidity and then replacing it, profiting $8,000.
  • The same trader might have been attacked five more times on the same day.
  • Speculation suggests the trades could be linked to money laundering attempts.

Summary

On March 12, a crypto trader experienced a significant financial loss due to a sandwich attack while attempting to swap $220,764 worth of USD Coin (USDC) for Tether (USDT) on Uniswap v3. The attack, executed by an MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) bot, resulted in the trader receiving only $5,271 in USDT, with the bot profiting $8,000 and tipping $200,000 to an Ethereum block builder. The attack involved front-running the transaction, manipulating the liquidity pool to extract maximum value. Further analysis suggests that the same trader might have been targeted multiple times that day, with transactions originating from the Aave protocol. There's also speculation that these trades could be part of a money laundering scheme, where illicit funds are laundered through MEV bots. Despite initial criticism, it was clarified that Uniswap's front end has protections against such attacks, indicating the transactions were likely initiated from external sources.

cointelegraph
March 13, 2025
Crypto
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