Explosive truth behind crypto bots that front-run thieves to “save” funds — but they decide who gets paid back
Makina Finance lost 1,299 ETH, roughly $4.13 million, in a flash-loan and oracle manipulation exploit.
The attacker drained the protocol’s funds and broadcast the transaction to Ethereum’s public mempool, where it should have been picked up by validators and included in the next block.
Instead, an MEV builder identified by the address 0xa6c2 front-ran the draining transaction, redirecting most of the funds into builder-controlled custody before the hacker could move them off-chain.
The hacker’s transaction failed. The funds landed in two addresses associated with the MEV builder.
The immediate takeaway is that Makina’s users avoided a total loss. The deeper signal is who ended up holding the money and what that means for crypto’s emerging…
