- MEV bots and sandwich attacks on the BNB network grew.
- Revenue generated by the network surged and development activity increased.
The Binance Smart Chain [BNB] network has witnessed massive volatility over the last few days due to various reasons such as the current sentiment of the market and the legal issues faced by Binance.
Despite these factors, the overall activity on the BNB network continued to remain consistent.
Bots flood the network
However, the surge in activity could be attributed to MEV bots and sandwich activity on the network. This was mentioned in crypto analyst hildobby’s recent post.
According to the data, BNB was experiencing a substantial surge in sandwich activity due to Ethereum’s highly competitive MEV landscape.
At press time the statistics stand at $1 billion per week, constituting 14% of the total volume, involving 35,000 victims weekly (4.6% of traders), and encompassing 215,000 transactions per week (4% of total transactions).
For context, MEV (Miner Extractable Value) bots are automated programs that exploit the order execution sequence on blockchain networks to extract maximum value for miners.
Sandwich attacks involve strategically placing buy and sell orders around a target transaction to manipulate its execution price, typically to the advantage of the attacker and the detriment of other traders.
Source: X
Possible impacts
The surge in this type of activity, driven by Ethereum’s fiercely competitive MEV landscape, introduces several concerns.
Firstly, the substantial volume involved could lead to heightened network congestion, resulting in delayed transaction confirmations and higher transaction fees, diminishing the overall user experience.
Furthermore, the elevated number of victims could raise security and trust issues within the BNB network. Users falling prey to sandwich attacks may experience financial losses and, in turn, could lead to a decline in overall confidence in the network.
Additionally, the significant number of transactions attributed to sandwich activity poses a risk of overloading the network’s capacity, potentially impeding the scalability and efficiency of BNB transactions.
Realistic or not, here’s BNB market cap in BTC’s terms
Looking at the bright side
Coming to other aspects of the BNB network, it was seen that the revenue generated by the protocol had grown by 25% over the last month.
Moreover, there was a surge in development activity on the network as well. Token Terminal’s data showcased that the number of code commits for the BNB network had grown by 80% in the last 24 hours.
Source: token terminal