MILLIONS of dollars in MEV are siphoned away DAILY by vpe (aka arsc), the top sandwich bot. But the worst part? This isn’t just about MEV—it’s about centralization of MEV. And it’s the greatest threat to Solana’s decentralization I’ve seen. Solana’s volume is skyrocketing, and with it, MEV extraction. The value of sandwiching now exceeds the value of all other MEV (including priority fees) on Solana COMBINED. If the current centralization trend continues, I predict arsc will become Solana’s largest staker within 1-2 years. They’re looping profits into staking their sandwiching validators—already top 200 by stake weight—and they’re not slowing down. Long-term: We have a roadmap to tackle sandwiching. Short-term: Decentralization is at risk now. Two approaches could slow or prevent centralization: 1️⃣ Whitelist/Blacklist: Top tx-sending providers (Helius, Nozomi, Triton, etc.) create opt-in whitelists of “good validators” and route txs only to them. 🟡 Challenge: Blacklists become a cat-and-mouse game, and adoption of whitelists may be too slow to gain adoption and prevent centralization. 2️⃣ Public Mempool (Nuclear Option): Reintroduce a public mempool. This redistributes MEV among validators and stakers, preserving decentralization. 🟠 Downside: This will increase sandwiching across Solana. We’re working EXTREMELY hard to collect data and will release a formal recommendation soon. Personally, I’m leaning toward Approach 2. I will post some relevant addresses below -- but all you need to do to verify the numbers is to watch their wsol balance go up in real time.