Understanding MEV

MEV refers to the "Maximum Extractable Value", an economic phenomenon representing profit opportunities arising from on-chain transactions.

For example, a large swap on a DEX can cause token prices in a pool to fluctuate. Traders might explore the price difference in another pool to generate a positive surplus, and such arbitrage opportunities are considered MEV.

In general, arbitrage is an example of healthy MEV, as finding better quotes is vital in a free market and benefits the end user.

On the other hand, toxic-MEV can be harmful. For example, when users trade with high slippage and/or are unaware of sandwich attacks or when the network is congested due to heavy sniping.

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Urani's Approach

Urani addresses toxic-MEV minimization at the application layer by:

Additionally, we coined the term "MEV agents" to distinguish "healthy" bots from toxic-MEV bots. We refer to the humans behind these bots as "MEV agent operators". At Urani, they are as important as any other actor in the supply chain.

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Learn more about MEV

➡️ More information on how Urani helps minimize toxic-MEV is available in our docs.
➡️ Visualize sandwich attacks on Solana with sandwiched.me and on Ethereum with Eigenphi.
➡️ To explore MEV and fee markets on Solana, check out our curated library.
➡️ To delve deeper into MEV in general, explore the Autistic Symposium's toolkit