The bot named after a sandwich lover lost millions in crypto tricks

A well-known crypto trading bot that once earned fame by manipulating transactions on Ethereum recently faced a clever counterattack. Known for its sandwich-style trades, the bot—Jaredfromsubway. eth—would spot and copy profitable deals before they went through, pushing prices up then selling to pocket the difference. This strategy became so common that reports suggested it controlled a large share of similar trades on the network. Even Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, reportedly fell victim to its tactics. Instead of exploiting a weakness in the bot’s code, attackers turned its own playbook against it. They created fake tokens and fake trading pools that looked real, tricking the bot into granting approvals it shouldn’t have. Once the bot gave access to move funds on its behalf, the attackers quietly collected permissions across multiple transactions. Eventually, they gathered enough control to drain around seven and a half million dollars in real tokens like WETH, USDC, and USDT. Some of the stolen funds were later routed through a popular crypto mixing service called Tornado Cash.The incident highlights a bigger problem with decentralized finance, or DeFi. When all transactions are visible before they’re finalized, bots with early access can take advantage. This isn’t just a crypto issue—front-running has long been frowned upon in traditional finance too. In DeFi, though, it’s often seen as a normal part of trading rather than a problem to fix. Still, developers are working on ways to make transactions more private or fairer, hoping to reduce manipulation. Security remains a major worry across the DeFi space. Months before this bot was tricked, reports showed record-breaking losses from hacks in a single month. Despite the innovations in blockchain technology, vulnerabilities keep causing major financial damage, making big investors hesitate before jumping in.