Declining Sandwich Attacks on Ethereum: Insights from EigenPhi

Recent research from EigenPhi indicates that sandwich attacks on Ethereum have decreased significantly, even as trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have increased. Despite this decline, users remain vulnerable, and the conversation surrounding protective measures against such attacks continues.

Key Takeaways

Sandwich Attacks Explained: These attacks involve an attacker manipulating transaction orders to profit at a victim's expense.
Decrease in Activity: The frequency of sandwich attacks fell sharply in 2025, but risks to users persist, with traders losing around $60 million annually.
Dominant Entity: A significant portion of these attacks—about 70%—are attributed to a single entity known as Jared.
Target Pools: Many of the attacks concentrated on low-volatility pools, including stablecoins and liquid staking tokens.
Profitability Challenges: With decreasing profits from attacks, many sandwich bots are struggling to maintain their activity levels.

Exclusive data from EigenPhi reveals that sandwich attacks on Ethereum have waned

Understanding Sandwich Attacks on Ethereum

Maximal extractable value (MEV) refers to the economic advantage that block builders gain by manipulating the order of transactions. Among the various types of MEV activities, sandwich attacks are particularly harmful. In these attacks, an attacker simultaneously frontruns and backruns a victim’s transaction, leading to a subpar execution price for the victim while the attacker profits from the price spread. Ethereum is particularly susceptible to MEV due to its vibrant DEX environment and the open market for block building, which makes transaction ordering transparent to searchers.

This article by Cointelegraph Research delves into data concerning sandwiching activities from November 2024 to October 2025, based on a comprehensive dataset of over 95,000 sandwich attacks provided by EigenPhi.

Despite a notable decrease in sandwich extraction, ordinary users still face risks. Although the attacks cause approximately $60 million in losses annually for traders, block builders reap the majority of this value through associated gas fees, leaving attackers with meager profits averaging only 5%. Nearly 40% of sandwich attacks target low-volatility pools, suggesting that traders might experience significant slippage even in swaps that are typically safe. The decrease in extraction rates could also indicate a growing number of traders utilizing MEV protection tools.

Unfortunately, there is no established mechanism to safeguard users’ swaps from such sandwiching attacks. The discussion is ongoing about the need for a unified MEV protection system at the Ethereum protocol level. Previous articles have explored potential technological solutions such as Shutter’s threshold encryption and Batched Threshold Encryption.

The State of Sandwich Activity in 2025

In 2025, the instances of sandwich extraction plummeted significantly, even as monthly volumes on DEXs climbed from around $65 billion in Q1 to surpassing $100 billion by Q3. The monthly extraction from sandwich attacks fell from nearly $10 million in late 2024 to approximately $2.5 million by October 2025.

Net profits after accounting for gas fees from these attacks averaged about $260,000 monthly in 2025, although this figure was inflated by an extraordinary case in January where a single sandwich attack generated over $800,000 in profit.

Data showcasing the decreasing profit from sandwich attacks

Despite the decline in extraction revenue, the volume of attacks consistently ranged between 60,000 and 90,000 monthly. Remarkably, about 70% of all sandwich attacks are linked to one entity, Jared (jaredfromsubway.eth), a renowned MEV searcher whose second-generation bot employs advanced strategies capable of targeting multiple victims simultaneously. This bot sometimes positions a transaction between the frontrun and backrun transactions to raise swap rates for subsequent victims. Additionally, Jared is able to influence prices by adjusting liquidity in pools.

Image revealing Jared's strategy on sandwich attacks

Targeted Trading Pairs by Sandwich Attackers

Analysis suggests that approximately 38% of sandwich attacks target low-volatility pools, including those with stablecoins and wrapped tokens, as well as liquid staking tokens (LSTs) associated with Ether and Bitcoin. Alarmingly, around 12% of all sandwich attacks are directed at stable swaps, unexpectedly increasing slippage risk in scenarios where it is generally deemed safe. The most actively traded token, apart from stablecoins and wrapped assets, is the memecoin MANYU paired with WETH. Jared has consistently focused on this pool since July, accumulating nearly $19,000 from 65 separate sandwich attacks.

Image illustrating targeted trading pairs

The Competitive Landscape: Profitability Challenges for MEV Bots

As profitability has tightened, the space for sandwich bots has become highly competitive, resulting in fewer bots remaining active. In October 2025, 515 distinct bots were operating on Ethereum; however, only about 100 engaged in trades on a regular monthly basis.

Graph showing active bots in the Ethereum network

The average profit per sandwich attack remains notably low, just above $3. Only six attackers have managed to generate profits exceeding $10,000, revealing the slim opportunities for consistent returns in this niche. About one-third of all sandwich bots active in 2025 are hovering around break-even (between -$10 and $10), while roughly 30% reported net losses. These losses are often the result of fierce competition over a limited number of opportunities, as well as miscalculations regarding slippage and gas fees, producing margins that are too narrow to weather such errors.

Image analyzing the performance of sandwich bots

From the data, Jared's strategy has proven the most successful so far, focusing on quantity while capturing a majority of sandwich opportunities, including smaller attacks that yield minimal profits. Throughout much of 2025, low gas costs in relation to the revenue per attack made this approach more sustainable than before. However, Jared still occasionally incurs losses; for instance, in April 2025, the profit margin dipped to minus 20%, translating into a loss of around $12,000.

Image demonstrating the growth and decline of sandwich profits