Solana has effectively shut down the sandwich attack vulnerability that previously plagued its network, marking a significant security milestone. A combination of reduced speculative token activity and enhanced transaction ordering protocols has rendered these malicious MEV strategies economically unviable, with daily losses now negligible and confined primarily to sub-$1 transactions. Network data reveals MEV attackers have largely abandoned the chain, spending a mere 5 SOL on bot activity over the past month, as Solana's ecosystem evolves toward using transaction ordering for efficiency rather than exploitation.

Solana transaction ordering still matters

Solana users have still spent a significant amount of fees on Solana ordering. In 2025, the network evolved as block transaction ordering became essential.

Jito is still the main hub for efficient app transactions, which shifted chain usage from sandwich attacks to other types of block space ordering. Solana has increased its safety with more efficient apps, anti-spam measures, and improved validator rules, noted Lucas Bruder, co-founder and CEO of Jito Labs.

“Malicious extraction now represents a very small fraction of blockspace activity, while the majority of transaction ordering value reflects legitimate competition for inclusion and speed,” stated Bruder in an X post.

Solana has also added private transaction routing, a trusted execution environment, such as Jito’s Block Assembly Marketplace, and a new proposal process that makes transactions confidential until execution. This makes predatory MEV bot strategies much harder to execute.

Solana may switch to permissioned systems

According to Jito’s plans, Solana may switch to new techniques for block ordering. MEV is not as efficient, as it leads to heightened competition. For instance, users paid over $1.5M in a single hour on January 20, 2025, to mint Official Trump (TRUMP) tokens.

Jito can keep altering Solana block ordering, as currently nearly 90% of transactions use Jito as their main safety tool. The validator and block builder have proposed a switch to Transaction Ordering Value, a neutral priority system that still recognizes the scarcity of block space, while not allowing malicious activities.

Solana block ordering also depends on infrastructure and proximity, similar to the traditional financial system when using electronic tools. Jito will keep capturing its usual fees, mostly by providing the best infrastructure for the increased Solana speed of execution.

The MEV debate versus rational block ordering shows Solana has evolved in the past year and may bring a more efficient block-building structure. Otherwise, competitive and haphazard MEV usage has generated up to $720M in annual bribes to find scarce block space, but has become too expensive for the old type of sandwich attacks.

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.