Hacker Loses $371K in MEV Sandwich Attack While Cashing Out Stolen USDC

A cybercriminal who drained roughly 500,000 USDC from a victim on the Base network suffered a major setback while attempting to swap the stolen funds on a decentralized exchange. The attacker failed to set any slippage protection on the trade.

A MEV (maximal extractable value) bot detected the vulnerable transaction and executed a sandwich attack, manipulating the price to capture most of the value. As a result, the hacker lost about $371,000 of the stolen USDC, walking away with only approximately $129,000.

The incident highlights the risks even malicious actors face in the DeFi space, where automated bots constantly monitor mempools for profitable opportunities. The Base network, an Ethereum layer-2, has seen growing MEV activity as its ecosystem expands.