1. The Return of the MEV Bot
2. MEV Bot's Profit and Trading Volume
3. New Exploitation Methods

The popular MEV bot jaredfromsubway.eth has made a comeback with enhanced capabilities and sophisticated strategies to exploit DeFi protocols, as reported by the MEV tracking platform EigenPhi.

The Return of the MEV Bot

The MEV tracking platform EigenPhi was the first to report on the return of the MEV bot on August 20. EigenPhi noticed its activity across different on-chain trading platforms, which led to the release of a report on the bot's comeback.

MEV Bot's Profit and Trading Volume

According to EigenPhi, the bot's profit and trading volume have plummeted to zero since August 14. However, as per their analysis by the Bot Dune dashboard, in the first two weeks of August, the bot gave out 851 ETH, approximately $2.2 million at the current market price. The bot's primary method of operation involves sandwich attacks, where transactions are placed before and after a target transaction, aiming at price manipulation.

New Exploitation Methods

 *Source: EigenPhi* The new MEV bot employs new techniques, including the addition and removal of liquidity in DEX pools as part of their strategy. This makes it difficult for analysts to track the bot's movements. Using the liquidity manipulation technique, Jared 2.0 can easily carry out attacks that are difficult to identify. *“Jared 2.0 would use adding liquidity transactions as the front and/or center piece and removing liquidity transactions as the back piece. The combination can vary, putting several transactions in between, becoming sandwich attack victims,”* said EigenPhi. Data from EigenPhi also shows that sandwich attack volume has surged past $17 billion in the last month. The name 'jaredfromsubway.eth' was inspired by Jared Fogle, a former Subway spokesperson who was convicted in 2015 for child pornography and pedophilia, receiving a 15-year prison sentence.

The return of the MEV bot jaredfromsubway.eth with new exploitation methods underscores the ongoing challenges to the security of DeFi protocols. Investors and developers need to be particularly vigilant against such threats.