Lately, when I’ve been watching on-chain trades, the “sandwich” thing looks more and more like, “You think you’re grabbing the meat, but you’re actually just passing someone a knife.” Sometimes I also get the urge to set up a small arbitrage, but when I click in, I see slippage, routing, gas—and when I do the math, most of it ends up becoming other people’s fees and priority fees. Plainly speaking, you’re just one tube in the liquidity-draining machine.

What’s even more annoying is that many wallets/aggregators still leave the whole experience at “you decide what to do.” Users don’t even know who they’re racing against. Developers are buzzing about modularity and DA-layer narrative development, while ordinary people open the page and are still completely confused: Why do I have to pay three charges just to swap coins—and why am I getting clipped in the middle?

These days, I basically only move when liquidity is deep and the routing is simple. I’d rather make a little less—at least I’m not turning into a textbook. After all, there seem to be plenty of on-chain opportunities. But when it really lands on your head, ask one question first: Who is actually making money from this? That’s it for now.