$2M Lost as Same-Block Backrun Extraction Attack Exploits Low-Liquidity Pool

A crypto trader lost nearly $2 million on July 6 after being targeted in a same-block backrun extraction attack. The incident occurred when a decentralized exchange (DEX) router directed their swap through an AVAIL/WETH pool on Uniswap v3, which had very little available liquidity.

The trade executed at roughly 120 times the price AVAIL was trading at elsewhere in the market, resulting in the trader receiving nearly 6.67 million AVAIL tokens initially.

The 0x router then sold a small amount of externally sourced AVAIL back into the same pool, extracting around 1,072 ETH from it, with Titan Builder earning $1.8 million as a block builder reward.