How This MEV Bot Earned $1.27 Million By Spending Only $4

The Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot carried out a flash loan attack and stole around $1.27 million from BlackHole (BH) tokens.

MEV bots have attracted a lot of attention this year. Some use the sites to conduct sandwich attacks or exploit arbitrage opportunities.

MEV Bot runs a flash loan attack for just $4

According to the MEV information website EigenPhi, there was an arbitrage MEV attack on the BH token on the BNB chain. Blockchain security platform Beosin Alert estimated a loss of $1.27 million. He explains.

“The attacker Flash lent a large amount of $USDT, then called 0x33688938() and added $USDT to the contract. The contract adds liquidity to the pair, from the usual liquidity of ~1 USDT: 100 BH.”

The attacker then exchanges $USDT with $BH in pairs and calls function 0x4e290832.

As a result of the aggressive swap, the liquidity ratio was about 1 USDT: 2 BH, allowing for additional $USDT withdrawals.

Read more: What is Maximum Extractable Value (MEV)?

After carrying out the flash loan attack, the BH token exploit used the crypto mixer Tornado Cash to destroy the funds. The screenshot below shows that the wallet sent Tornado Cash in batches of 100 BNB.

Since this MEV bot attack on BH token, there has been an increase in carpet pulling incidents on the BNB chain lately.

Read more: Top 7 Tornado Cash Options in 2023

Platypus Finance Flash Loan Attack

Earlier on Thursday, blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus Finance was the victim of a $2 million exploit. The project responded by banning all pools and ensuring community members receive timely updates.

While the nature of the transaction has not been disclosed, it may be a flash loan attack. Also, in February 2023, the project lost $8.5 million in flash credit attacks.

BeInCrypto has already been explained:

“A flash loan is a crypto loan that is taken out and repaid in the same transaction.

However, this institution attracts bad actors to take large loans and then use the amount to manipulate the market to their advantage. Such a malicious activity is called a flash loan attack.

In the year Euler's financial exploit of $200 million in March 2023 was also a surprise credit attack.

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