Maximal extractable value (MEV)
The value that block producers, and the specialised actors (searchers and builders) who prepare blocks for them, can capture by choosing which transactions to include and in what order. Typical forms are arbitrage between pools, liquidations, front-running and sandwich attacks, in which a victim’s trade is surrounded by two transactions that profit from its price impact.
MEV activity appears on-chain as tightly ordered transactions in the same block, often with payments to the block builder. Its presence explains patterns that might otherwise be misread as coordinated by the parties under investigation.
Related
Essays
- The Magic of Flash Loans (Part 1): Capital Was Never the Constraint
“This is why modern MEV is not mainly a story about money.”
- Two Sweeps Pointed at the Same Address
“Where I stopped Flashbots is the research organisation formed to study and mitigate MEV, the value extracted by whoever decides the order of transactions inside a block.”