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Ethereum developers explore encrypted mempool to blunt sandwich attacks

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was targeted in April when a bot front-ran and back-ran a swap, underscoring the incentive for bots to watch the public mempool.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Ethereum developers are weighing a defense against predatory trading bots that exploit Ethereum’s public mempool, where pending transactions are visible before they are executed.

The concern centers on “sandwich attacks,” where bots spot a pending swap, trade ahead of the victim to move prices, then unwind after the user’s transaction settles. While losses linked to these attacks have reportedly declined from earlier peaks, the practice remains active, and the issue has affected high-profile users, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who was targeted in April by the Jaredfromsubway.eth bot, which front-ran and back-ran a small swap from one of his addresses.

Developers are expected to discuss proposals during an Aug. 19 “Encrypt the Mempool” call, with the goal of concealing transaction contents until builders have already committed to the transaction’s position in a block. Traders can already reduce exposure by routing through private relays, but that shifts reliance to intermediaries that control transaction inclusion and availability.

One proposal highlighted in the discussion is EIP-8184, called LUCID, which would require block builders to commit to sealed transactions containing a chargeable ticket and encrypted payload without knowing what the transaction does. After the commitment, the sender or an off-protocol key publisher would release the information needed to decrypt it, though the article notes fully enshrined encryption must meet difficult constraints at Ethereum scale.

Latest closeEthereum $1,913.61 ▲0.1%

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