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🚫🥪 Don’t Get Sandwiched: How to Protect Yourself from MEV

A guide to protecting your transactions from sandwich attacks and MEV using wallet-based protection features and custom RPC methods.

Max avatar
Written by Max
Updated this week

Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) attacks — especially sandwich attacks — can cause you to lose value during swaps and bridges without realizing it.

Here’s what MEV is, how to spot it, and the easiest ways to protect yourself.

🧠 What is MEV?

MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) is when someone (usually a validator or bot) manipulates the order of transactions in a block to profit from yours.

Common example: a sandwich attack

  • A bot sees your swap coming

  • It buys in front of you, making the price go up

  • You buy at a worse price

  • The bot sells after you, locking in profit

You end up with fewer tokens than expected.

The bot walks away with the gains.

🧯 Chains where this happens most

These chains are especially vulnerable to MEV:

  • Ethereum Mainnet

  • BNB Chain

  • Polygon (MEV is reduced via FastLane, but still possible)

Here's an example of what a sandwiched transaction looks like on Etherscan:

🛡️ How to protect yourself

There are two main ways to avoid getting sandwiched:

✅ Use a Wallet with Built-In MEV Protection (Easiest)

Several wallets offer native MEV protection for swaps and bridges — no configuration needed.

Wallet

Notes

Trust Wallet

MEV protection enabled by default in swap settings

Bitget Wallet

Multi-chain MEV protection across ETH, BNB, Solana, Base, and more

SafePal

Built-in protection for secure token swaps

OKX Wallet

Toggle MEV protection in settings

Binance Wallet

Automatic protection for swaps inside the wallet

TokenPocket

MEV protection integrated into default swap UX

If you’re a beginner or don’t want to mess with settings, we recommend starting here.

⚙️ Advanced Option: Add a MEV-Protected RPC

If you’re using MetaMask or a wallet that doesn’t have MEV protection built-in, you can add a custom private RPC to shield your transactions.

We recommend bloXroute for this:

🔗 https://docs.bloxroute.com/evm-networks-bsc-eth/protect-rpcs

🧰 How to Add an RPC in MetaMask

1) Open Metamask

2) Click the network icon in the top left of your wallet to show the list of enabled networks.

3) Locate the desired network you want to edit and click the 3 dots to edit:

4) Select the Default RPC URL dropdown field and click “Add RPC URL”.

5) Enter the URL, nickname, and save your configurations.

🧪 How do I know if I got sandwiched?

Here are signs you may have been affected by MEV:

  • You got the minimum possible amount within your slippage tolerance window

  • Your refund amount seems lower than expected

  • You were using a public RPC on a vulnerable chain

🧾 Can Relay prevent this?

Relay optimizes for fast execution and uses tight slippage settings which helps reduce MEV risk, but doesn't control the validator or block ordering process. This is why setting up your wallet with proper protection is important for maximum security.

🙋 Need Help?

If you’re not sure whether you were affected — or want help setting up MEV protection — reach out to us. We’re happy to walk you through it.

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