Solana's GMGN App Hit by 30.8% of Sandwich Attack Profits in 30 Days

An increasing concern for the Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem is the rising frequency of sandwich attacks, an exploitative form of front-running. In the past 30 days, over 260,000 sandwich attacks have been recorded across Solana-based trading applications, with more than 23,600 SOL taken through these tactics. These numbers highlight a vulnerability in high-throughput blockchains like Solana, putting the ecosystem’s overall security at risk.

At the center of this issue is GMGN, a trading app driven by artificial intelligence and built on the Solana network. Despite handling a smaller portion of the overall trading volume, GMGN has been disproportionately targeted. The app earned 30.8% of all sandwich profits relative to its own trading activity, making it the most impacted application in percentage terms.

A sandwich attack is a type of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) exploit where an observer sees a user’s pending transaction, quickly places a buy order before it, and then places a sell order just after the user’s transaction is processed. This manipulates the price of the asset and extracts profit from the unsuspecting trader’s slippage. While common across most smart contract platforms, sandwich attacks on Solana are receiving more attention due to their frequency and impact.

The vulnerability of GMGN stems from its lack of protection mechanisms and its popularity among newer, less sophisticated crypto traders. GMGN is not just a trading platform; it is an outreach engine for GM’s deceptively simple crypto asset trading strategies. Most retail investors should not be using it. In contrast, Jupiter Exchange, which captures over 30% of Solana’s total swap activity, has only seen 7% of the value associated with sandwich attacks extracted from its transactions. This disparity illustrates that more sophisticated platforms with built-in slippage controls, route optimizations, and protections against MEV can virtually eliminate the success of these kinds of swindles.

The growing MEV problem on Solana is a concern for developers and users alike. The architecture of Solana, while fast and low-cost, is also fertile ground for transaction-level arbitrage. The ability to see pending transactions in the mempool creates a playground for sophisticated bots that exploit latency and timing vulnerabilities. Most newer or rapidly growing apps do not yet integrate sufficient MEV-aware design patterns or secure routing protocols, making them accessible to MEV bots looking for exploitable trades.

At GMGN, this trend could erode user trust unless timely action is taken to remedy the situation. The Solana development community is discussing possible steps, including encrypted transaction submissions and private transaction relays as emerging solutions. Some developers suggest addressing the situation at the protocol level, while others advocate for developers of Solana-based apps to implement protections that would secure their users from bots.

As GMGN’s weaknesses become more acknowledged, the project is likely to encounter additional probing from its user base and ecosystem allies. The app has brought something novel to Solana’s trading scene with its AI-infused interface, but its security architecture now looks in urgent need of an overhaul. This incident underscores the necessity of educating users to understand the fundamental principles that provide the bedrock of security for the systems they’re using.

The relative strength of Jupiter Exchange offers a potential model for not just GMGN but also other new entrants in the space. With user numbers rising in Solana thanks to the promise of speed and near-zero cost, it’s now incumbent on the developers and the project teams to make sure the place remains a fast, cheap, and safe environment for trading. If no steps are taken, sandwich attacks may keep growing, even threatening the very innovative platforms on Solana that are so trustworthy and usable, at least for now.