When I first heard about sandwich attacks, I thought it was a bug in my code—why would the price shift as soon as I bought in, with slippage always a notch higher than what I set? Later I realized someone was charging me a "toll"—MEV bots sandwiched my transaction between two others, profiting from the few seconds of my haste.

Now when I look at on-chain arbitrage, it actually feels quite transparent. In essence, everyone is racing for time—if you're slow or set your gas too conservatively, someone else will naturally pay more to cut in line. Same with stablecoins lately—people in groups are spreading rumors of de-pegging left and right. I've already converted part of my holdings into short-term Treasury ETFs. When the wind picks up, you land first; don't gamble on sentiment.

Opportunities and fees are sometimes the same thing—it just depends which side you're on.