Solana kicks out validators extracting value from users through sandwich attacks

Solana's (SOL) price slightly declined on Monday after its foundation expelled a group of validators from its delegation program on Sunday upon discovering their involvement in sandwich attacks against users.

Sandwich attack validators expelled from Solana delegation program

In a Discord post on Sunday, the Solana Foundation announced it had removed a group of validators from the Solana Foundation Delegation Program following their participation in sandwich attacks against Solana users. Solana Validator Relations Lead Tim Garcia made the announcement referencing an earlier May 7 post that warned against such attacks in the Solana ecosystem.

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"Operators engaging in malicious activities such as participating in a private mempool to sandwich attack transactions or otherwise harming Solana users will not be tolerated by the delegation program. Anyone found engaging in such activity will be rejected from the program and any stake from the Foundation will be immediately and permanently removed," the referenced post stated.

Sandwich attacks are a form of front-running that involves an attacker choosing a blockchain pending transaction and placing two transactions — a buy and sell order — before and after it. The aim is to manipulate the underlying transacted asset's price so that the attacker can profit from the difference.

According to Garcia, the validators involved in the attack will no longer be able to receive SOL tokens from the Foundation to boost their participation in Solana's consensus. While the move prevents these validators from receiving delegated tokens from the Foundation, they can still independently participate in Solana's consensus.

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Solana's suspension of these validators follows the US Department of Justice (DoJ) charging two brothers, Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, for an alleged $25 million maximal extractable value (MEV) exploit. The brothers could face up to 20 years in prison if proven guilty.

Some developers have expressed disappointment at the move. In an X post on Sunday, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov stated, "So admins can just kick out validators they don't like in Solana?" Other developers even accused Solana of having a form of decentralization in its consensus process. However, users have the opposite view of the situation, as many have praised the Solana team for their quick response.

Solana's price saw a 2% decline after the announcement but has since recovered and is down by only 0.2% in the past 24 hours.