Recently I’ve again seen someone in the group show off “on-chain arbitrage.” To put it plainly: many times what you call an opportunity is actually someone else’s fee—when it comes to a sandwich, with trades on both sides trapping your order, the order you just placed becomes their profit. Now that I’m seeing slippage get bigger and the pool’s trades suddenly become denser, I automatically hold back; I’d rather make a little less than become fuel.

What’s even funnier is that while everyone is cursing MEV as blood-sucking, they’re also going off to learn how to do it… Anyway, I only dare to use some limit orders and do things in batches—if I can get out, I get out. In the privacy-coin and mixing side, there’s been recent arguing over compliance to the point of fracture. My feeling is: when the rules aren’t clear, the first ones to harvest you are often not the market, but the “invisible costs.” For now, that’s it—let the excitement be excitement; I’ll keep risk off.