A cryptocurrency trading bot, which was designed to execute arbitrage trades, carried out a series of intricate transactions within the Ethereum blockchain. These transactions included acquiring a flash loan worth $200 million, all in an effort to secure a profit of only $3.24.
Blockchain analysis company, Arkham Intelligence, released a detailed report on June 14, outlining the various actions of the aforementioned bot. The report confirmed that the transaction was executed by an arbitrage bot that utilizes flash loans.
The analysis firm clarified that the reason behind the high amount borrowed of $1.00 DAI is due to MakerDAO’s “DssFlash” contract, which permits zero-fee borrowing on any amount of DAI, with a maximum threshold of $500 million. This essentially allows the bot to obtain unsecured loans, provided that the borrowed assets are repaid within the same block.
Arkham’s report revealed that the bot obtained a loan of 200 million DAI from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform MakerDAO, and subsequently deposited the funds into the Aave DAI market. Afterward, the bot secured 1.349 Wrapped Ether (WETH) using the borrowed funds. The WETH was then utilized to purchase Threshold Network (T) tokens on the Curve Finance exchange, which were eventually sold on the Balancer liquidity protocol.
As a result of these series of transactions, the bot managed to acquire a sum of 0.019 Ether, which was valued at $1,672, equivalent to approximately $33 during the time of the transaction. It is important to note, however, that the trade incurred transaction fees of approximately $28.76, with an additional $1 being sent to the block builder. This ultimately left the bot with a meager profit of $3.24.
Despite the apparent high risk involved in comparison to the minimal profit earned, a member of the community commended the bot, emphasizing that any amount of profit is still deemed valuable. Conversely, a Twitter user remarked that the bot’s extensive efforts to generate a small profit are indicative of the current state of the bear market.
It is worth noting that not all bots are programmed to execute low-profit trades. In fact, on April 20, a bot operator managed to accumulate over $1 million in profits through sandwich attacks on meme-coin traders. The majority of these profits were derived from targeting the trading activity of meme coins such as Pepe coin (PEPE) and Wojak (WOJAK).
