A crypto trader fell victim to a sandwich attack when transferring $220,764 in stablecoin, losing almost 98% of its value due to an MEV bot.
How the Sandwich Attack Occurred
$220,764 in USDC were swapped to $5,271 in USDT in eight seconds as the MEV bot executed an attack on the Uniswap v3 liquidity pool. Data from the Ethereum block explorer revealed that the bot withdrew all USDC liquidity from the pool and returned it after the transaction, earning over $215,500.
Community Response
Analysts from the DeFi community noted that this trader may have repeatedly fallen victim to similar attacks. Michael Nadeau, founder of The DeFi Report, stated that the executor tipped the Ethereum block builder $200,000 while making an $8,000 profit.
Expert Opinions and Impact
Expert opinions vary: some see it as an attempt at laundering funds, while others note that such attacks could have been prevented with proper settings. The founder of DefiLlama pointed out the potential for laundering money through such attacks. Subsequently, Uniswap denied involvement of its platform in such a transaction.
The sandwich attack incident highlighted how vulnerable even experienced users of crypto platforms can be. Experts urge greater attention to security and fund protection.
