Just finished a late-night snack, then checked the on-chain activity. To put it plainly, MEV is basically “who sees it first, who jumps the line first.” The group most affected isn’t really high-frequency traders—it’s people who tap a swap thinking it’ll execute in the order it’s submitted. Then they get sandwiched, slippage spikes, and they finally realize that the word “fair” is pretty luxurious on-chain.

What’s even more frustrating is that it turns a lot of risk from “price fluctuations” into “whether you do well in the queue.” Especially when an oracle suddenly reports some wildly wrong price—everyone learns to wait for confirmation first. After all, don’t rush to be the first one to try your luck… And ever since a cross-chain bridge got hacked, I’ve been even more timid. You can’t see the queue rules on the other side of the bridge, and if someone cuts in front of you, all you can do is accept it. That’s just how it is. If you can use limit orders, use limit orders; if you can chase less, chase less.