Solana Heavyweights Wage War Against Private Mempool Operators
Validators found to be facilitating sandwich attacks face stiff penalties.
A group of Solana (SOL) validators are facing financial penalties for allegedly facilitating economic attacks against crypto traders. Over 30 validator operators were kicked off the Solana Foundation Delegation Program over the weekend, a source familiar with the matter said. While they remain validators on the network, they're no longer eligible to receive what amounted to payout boosters for validating transactions on the Solana blockchain. Many of the operators were Russians, another source said.
The purge escalates a months-long shadow war between heavyweights of the Solana validator ecosystem and an underground economy of validators believed to be exploiting traders for profit through what's known as a "sandwich attack," whereby bots frontrun and backfill trades that haven't yet been executed.