MEV Losses on DeFi Swaps: How Much Do Retail Users Pay?

By Chanuka Geekiyanage Oct 26, 2026

Most retail swaps never get sandwiched, but the ones that do lose money silently, because the worse price looks like normal slippage. Cointelegraph Research and EigenPhi estimate that sandwich attacks cost Ethereum traders about $60 million a year, and sandwich bots extracted an estimated $370 million to $500 million from Solana users over 16 months, so your exposure depends on which chain you trade on and what you trade. This article shows what an average retail user pays, which swaps are most exposed, and which protection tools (Flashbots Protect, MEV Blocker, CoW Swap and Solana routing options) are worth setting up for your trade size.

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What Retail Users Actually Pay on Ethereum

Maximal extractable value (MEV) is profit that searchers and block builders earn by reordering transactions. The most harmful form for retail users is the sandwich attack, where a bot buys before your swap and sells right after it. If you want the mechanics first, this explainer on what MEV is in crypto and how it works covers frontrunning, backrunning, and builders.

The best public dataset I found covers November 2024 to October 2025. It includes more than 95,000 sandwich attacks, running at 60,000 to 90,000 per month. The study puts annual trader losses at about $60 million, although the summary line on the same page cites nearly $40 million for 2025. Treat the real figure as a $40 million to $60 million range, and note that this data is about a year old. For current numbers, check the EigenPhi and DefiLlama dashboards.

The per-attack math

Dividing $60 million by 720,000 to 1.08 million attacks a year gives roughly $55 to $85 lost per attack. That is my own arithmetic, not a published figure, and real losses vary widely by trade size and pool.

The attacker does not keep that money. The average attacker profit was just above $3 per attack, and block builders captured most of the value through gas fees. Your loss and the bot’s profit are different numbers, which is why a victim can lose far more than the sandwicher nets.

Why the trend is not as comforting as it looks

Monthly extraction fell from nearly $10 million in late 2024 to about $2.5 million by October 2025, even as monthly DEX volume rose from about $65 billion in Q1 to well over $100 billion by Q3. The researchers suggest more traders may be using MEV protection. They also note that attack counts stayed high, so the risk did not disappear.

Concentration matters too. Roughly 70% of sandwich attacks were tied to one entity, jaredfromsubway.eth. That bot lost more than $7.5 million in a June 2026 exploit, yet other sandwich operators kept bidding for block space. One operator’s exit would not end the problem.

Small trades are not safe either. Cointelegraph reported that Vitalik Buterin was sandwiched on a swap worth about $2. Bots run on volume, so a small, unprotected swap can still be worth hitting.

Where the Risk Is Highest: Ethereum, Solana and Layer 2s

Chain	Evidence of sandwiching	Main exposure	Practical read
Ethereum mainnet	95,000+ attacks in 12 months to October 2025	Public mempool, plus stable and LST pools	Use a private RPC or an intent-based DEX
Solana	$370M to $500M extracted, January 2024 to May 2025	Memecoin swaps, validators running private mempools	Keep slippage tight and use MEV-aware routing
Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and similar rollups	Studies found no sustained, meaningful sandwiching	Sequencer trust, cross-layer attacks	Lower risk, but not zero

Solana: bigger numbers, different mechanics

Solana lacks a public mempool, so sandwichers rely on private mempools run by certain validators. Jito suspended its public mempool in March 2024, and the Solana Foundation removed a group of validators from its delegation program in June 2024. Even so, wide “blind” sandwiching rose from about 1% to 30% of attacks in the months before May 2025.

The picture has improved since. Tracker data from Ghost showed extraction peaking in November 2024 and tapering afterward, and Anza’s Max Resnick credits code improvements more than blacklists. The $370 million to $500 million figure comes from a conference presentation and measures gross bot extraction, so treat it as an estimate.

Memecoin traders carry the most risk. They tend to set high slippage tolerances on illiquid, volatile assets, which gives bots room to extract.

Image source: www.helius.dev/blog/solana-mev-report

Layer 2s: lower risk, different trust

An early study of Arbitrum, Optimism and zkSync found no sandwiching on the popular rollups, though it simulated cross-layer attacks that could have earned about $2 million. A January 2026 study found no sustained or economically meaningful sandwiching across major rollups with private mempools. It also found that the median net return for flagged attacks was negative.

The catch is that a centralized sequencer controls ordering. You are trusting an operator instead of competing with bots. That is a better deal for most retail users, but it is a different risk, not the absence of one.

Which Swaps Are Most Exposed

Not every swap carries the same risk. These factors matter most:

Loose slippage settings. Your slippage tolerance is roughly the ceiling on what a sandwich can take from you. High tolerances on volatile tokens are the main reason memecoin traders get hit.
Stable and LST pairs. About 38% of attacks hit low-volatility pools, and around 12% hit stable swaps. Many users assume these pairs are safe, so they skip protection.
Large trades in shallow pools. Bigger price impact leaves more room for a profitable sandwich, so check pool depth before you swap.
Illiquid long-tail tokens. Jared repeatedly targeted a MANYU/WETH pool, extracting nearly $19,000 across 65 attacks. Repeated targeting of a thin pool is a warning sign.
Public mempool submission on Ethereum. If your wallet broadcasts to the open network, every searcher can see your swap before it lands.

Protection Options Compared

Option	Chain	How it protects	Cost and refunds	Main limitation	Best for
Flashbots Protect RPC	Ethereum	Private mempool, hidden from public sandwich bots	Free; MEV-Share refunds on backruns	Refunds come from backruns, not recovered losses	Everyday swaps, one-time wallet setup
MEV Blocker	Ethereum	Routes through searchers to multiple builders	Free; users get 90% of the winning searcher’s bid	Rebates depend on searcher competition	Users who want rebates and simple setup
CoW Swap	Ethereum and other EVM chains	Batch auctions at uniform clearing prices	Gasless per CoW docs; check fees in the quote	Orders wait for an auction batch	Larger swaps, stable and LST pairs
Helius MEV Protect	Solana	Routes transactions away from validators linked to sandwiching	Opt-in parameter on Helius endpoints	Statistical routing, not a guarantee	Solana traders using Helius-based apps

For a deeper tool-by-tool walkthrough, see this guide to MEV protection tools against sandwich attacks on DEXs.

Flashbots Protect

Flashbots Protect sends your transaction to a private mempool, hidden from frontrunning and sandwich bots. It only includes transactions that will not revert, so you do not pay for failed swaps. You can set it up by adding the Flashbots RPC to your wallet.

Read the refund claim carefully. Flashbots staff clarified that MEV-Share only allows backrunning, so the up-to-90% refund comes from searchers acting after your trade. The refund is a bonus, not compensation for a sandwich.

Image source: Flashbots documentation

MEV Blocker

MEV Blocker launched in April 2023 as a free RPC from CoW Swap, Agnostic Relay and Beaver Build, sharing 90% of MEV profits with users. CoW DAO clarified that the 90% applies to the winning searcher’s bid, not to the full backrun profit, and said it submits to 10 builders. A CoW DAO report summary states it had returned 4,079 ETH in rebates by the end of 2024.

In practice, Flashbots Protect and MEV Blocker do the same core job. Pick whichever your wallet supports with one tap.

CoW Swap

CoW Protocol collects orders off-chain and auctions them to solvers, and orders for the same pair settle at one clearing price, so transaction order stops mattering inside a batch. That structure removes the sandwich setup. The tradeoff is delay, since auctions run every 12 to 15 seconds.

Be skeptical of the “matching traders directly” story. A 2023 Technical University of Munich master’s thesis found that direct trader matches were negligible and that CoW mostly avoids sandwiches through private submission channels. That is one older study, but it suggests the privacy layer does most of the work.

Helius MEV Protect on Solana

Helius lets you opt in by adding a parameter to your endpoint URL, which routes transactions away from validators statistically linked to sandwich attacks. It reduces risk through routing rather than removing the attack path. Combine it with tight slippage, because a loose setting still hands bots room to work.

Checks Before You Swap

Run through these before sending a meaningful trade:

Check your RPC. On Ethereum, confirm your wallet uses a protected endpoint before you swap.
Set slippage deliberately. Keep it as low as the quote allows. Stable and LST pairs should need only a fraction of a percent.
Compare price impact to pool depth. If your trade moves the price noticeably, split it or use a limit order through CoW Swap.
Avoid thin pools. Check liquidity before buying a long-tail token.
Audit after the fact. EigenPhi’s Sandwich Detector checks whether an address was sandwiched on Ethereum or BSC in the past 30 days. On Solana, use sandwiched.me.

When Protection Is Not Worth the Hassle

Plain token transfers do not need it. Flashbots notes that simple transfers typically do not require MEV protection. If you only move tokens between your own wallets, skip the setup.

Protection also does not fix a bad trade. It will not rescue you from a shallow pool, a scam token, or a slippage setting you chose carelessly. And if a private submission fails to confirm, you may need to retry, though Flashbots does not charge for reverted transactions.

My Take

If you swap on Ethereum, set a protected RPC in your wallet once and stop thinking about it. Flashbots Protect and MEV Blocker are both free, and the downside is small compared with a $55 to $85 average hit. For larger swaps or stable and LST pairs, I would use CoW Swap, because those pairs get sandwiched more than most users expect.

On Solana, the biggest lever is your own slippage setting, especially on memecoins. Use MEV-aware routing where your RPC or wallet offers it, but do not treat it as a guarantee. On Layer 2s, you do not need extra tools for ordinary swaps today, but remember you are trusting the sequencer.

Who should skip all this? Anyone who only holds and transfers, or who swaps tiny amounts a few times a year. Before any swap, I would check the RPC, slippage, and pool depth, in that order. Protection tools reduce one risk, and they do not replace judgment about the token you are buying.

Conclusion

Retail users on Ethereum lose an estimated $40 million to $60 million a year to sandwich attacks, which works out to roughly $55 to $85 per attack by simple division. Solana losses were larger in absolute terms but have fallen from their late-2024 peak, and Layer 2 sandwiching looks rare. The cost clusters in loose slippage, thin pools, and unprotected submission.

The practical step is simple. Add a protected RPC if you trade on Ethereum, use CoW Swap for bigger or stable-pair swaps, and tighten your slippage everywhere. Then check your wallet history with a sandwich detector once in a while to see whether your setup works.

FAQs

1. How much does the average Ethereum swapper lose to sandwich attacks?

Research estimates about $60 million a year across 60,000 to 90,000 attacks a month, which implies roughly $55 to $85 per attack by simple division. Your own expected cost depends on trade size, slippage, and whether you use a private route.

2. Does a private RPC fully stop sandwich attacks?

Flashbots says protected transactions are hidden from public mempool sandwich bots. It does not fix a shallow pool or a loose slippage setting, so you still need to control both.

3. Are Layer 2 swaps safe from sandwiching?

Two academic studies found no sustained, meaningful sandwiching on major rollups with private mempools. The sequencer still controls ordering, so you are trusting that operator instead of competing with bots.

4. Why do stablecoin swaps get sandwiched?

EigenPhi data shows about 12% of Ethereum attacks hit stable swaps. Bots profit from thin spreads at high volume, with an average profit just above $3 per attack, so even tight pairs are worth hitting.

5. How can I check whether I was sandwiched?

EigenPhi’s Sandwich Detector lets you search an Ethereum or BSC address for attacks in the past 30 days. For Solana, sandwiched.me tracks detected sandwich attacks in real time.

References

Cointelegraph Research (EigenPhi data): https://cointelegraph.com/research/exclusive-data-from-eigenphi-reveals-that-sandwich-attacks-on-ethereum-have-waned

Cointelegraph, Jaredfromsubway.eth exploit: https://cointelegraph.com/news/notorious-sandwich-attack-bot-jaredfromsubwayeth-exploited-for-75m?rand=6792.

The Defiant (via KuCoin News): https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/ethereum-s-most-active-sandwich-bot-loses-7-5m-in-counter-mev-honeypot

Solana Compass, State of Solana MEV: https://solanacompass.com/learn/accelerate-25/scale-or-die-at-accelerate-2025-the-state-of-solana-mev

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About the Author: Chanuka Geekiyanage

Chanuka is a content writer, editor and contributor at Panaprium, specializing in long-form editorial articles. He conducts in-depth research and produces well-structured, carefully edited content with a strong focus on clarity, SEO best practices, and consistent formatting. His work spans lifestyle, fashion, wellness, and technical topics, and all articles are reviewed and refined to meet Panaprium’s editorial standards.

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