Solana Cracks Down on Validators Involved in “Sandwich” Attacks

Solana has taken a firm stance against validators participating in a type of exploit known as the “sandwich” attack. In these attacks, malicious traders inspect a chosen network, such as Ethereum, for pending transactions. A “sandwich” refers to placing an order before a transaction and immediately following it with another order.

Attackers manipulate asset prices by positioning their first pending transaction between concurrent front-running and back-running transactions, profiting from the price differential.

This tactic ensures that retail investors consistently receive the lowest prices, while the attackers retain all profits.

Participants in memory pools that allow “sandwich attacks” have been identified as validator operators. The decision to remove them was made in accordance with Solana Foundation’s regulations, which prohibit validators from engaging in malicious activities. Delegation tasks will not be assigned to validators found guilty in the future.

Tim Garcia, head of validator relations at Solana, announced the removal of validators on Discord. He also stated that the delegation program would not tolerate operators engaged in malicious activities, such as “participating in private memory pools to sandwich attack transactions or otherwise harm Solana users.”

Garcia added, “Anyone found to be involved in such activities will be barred from the program, and any stakes held by the foundation will be immediately and permanently revoked.”

Solana Delegation Program The Solana Foundation Delegation Program was created to alleviate the burden on validators holding large amounts of tokens by allocating Solana tokens to them.

Delegation allows users to assign their staking rights to staking pools or validators. In turn, validators are responsible for creating blocks and validating transactions. Their selection depends on their performance capabilities.

Therefore, it is unacceptable for validators to deceive retail investors using third-party meme pools. Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of Solana RPC provider Helius, elaborated on the challenges faced by operators attempting to profit from retail investors on platform X. He noted that certain operators had modified their validators to facilitate sandwich trading on Solana.

Moreover, Mumtaz stated that the Solana Foundation allocates SOL to validators to support their initial stages. The Solana Foundation has announced its commitment to protecting retail users from those who abuse the system for personal gain. Their primary goal is to prevent users from losing investments due to these fraudulent activities.

Sentiment: Neutral