Sandwich attacks manipulated 35.5% of BNB Smart Chain blocks in November

Data shows that the number of blocks suffering Sandwich attacks in the BNB Smart Chain reached a new record last month.

According to data provided by Dune, 35.5% of the blocks in BSC were manipulated by Sandwich attacks, abusing the blockchain’s transparency, immutability and decentralization. This set a new record high for the BSC network.

In Sandwich attacks, the malicious actor would put one order before and another right after a large transaction — sandwiching the on-chain transaction — to potentially purchase an asset at a lower price and sell before the victim makes a move.

The main intention of Sandwich attacks is to manipulate the price of a crypto asset on decentralized exchanges.

This will leave the victim with a higher purchase price due to the low liquidity on DEXs. Consequently, the prey’s transaction would be worth less.

Data from the analytics platform shows that over 43,000 DEX traders have been affected by Sandwich attacks over the past week, marking a nine-month high. Moreover, 645 active bots executing these manipulative attacks have been spotted on the BSC network within the same timeframe.

Last week, the total DEX volume on BSC reached $9.2 million. 

The rise of the Sandwich attacks in the BSC ecosystem comes as the network’s native token, BNB (BNB), recorded a 17% surge over the past month. BNB is changing hands at $656 with a market cap of $94.5 billion at the time of writing.

On the other hand, Sandwich attacks on Ethereum (ETH) have been declining since July — falling from 62.9% to 40.2% over the last five months. Just over 12,000 DEX users on the network suffered from Sandwich attacks over the past month.