MEV Bot Yoink Swipes $200,000 from PROMPT Airdrop Participants

The MEV bot named Yoink has siphoned off 119 ETH (approximately $200,000) into its wallets through the front-running of Kaito users’ requests during the distribution of PROMPT tokens by Wayfinder. This has been reported by The Block.

The airdrop platform TokenTable suspended the distribution process upon discovering the issue and pledged full compensation to those affected.

«The smart contract remains unaffected and is secure. Our initial findings indicate that MEV activity is the primary cause,» commented the platform’s team on the incident.

Wayfinder is an AI-based blockchain project that provides users with an on-chain agent for interacting with smart contract applications.

On April 10, the project launched its Token Generation Event (TGE) in Ethereum and the Layer 2 network Base to distribute PROMPT among PRIME stakers. This allocation consists of both governance and utility tokens from the organization behind Wayfinder, the Echelon Prime Foundation.

For users of the Kaito platform who interacted with the social media or AI project products through the Yapp solution, 0.25% of the total PROMPT distribution has been allocated.

«Hey, Wayfinder, I think the MEV front-runner is stealing and swapping all PROMPT claimed on Kaito for ETH,» stated independent developer Ultra.

According to the expert, the attack was not premeditated. The MEV bot identified a vulnerability during a standard search for profit opportunities. To execute the attack, Yoink leveraged public mempool data and flaws in the token issuance smart contract settings that favored Kaito’s «yappers,» Ultra clarified.

It’s worth noting that in May 2024, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin identified MEV as one of the three primary threats to the decentralization of the network.