Anti-MEV Protection

MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) bots exploit public-mempool transactions on Solana by front-running and back-running them (sandwich attacks). SharkBlock’s Anti-MEV feature routes your transactions through private bundle landers so they bypass the public mempool entirely.

How It Works

When you enable Anti-MEV, the swap transaction is not broadcast through the standard Solana RPC. Instead, SharkBlock’s execution layer sends it through one or more private bundle providers (“landers”) via the Mobula aggregator. These providers — currently Jito, Nozomi, and other Solana fast-tx providers — deliver the transaction directly to block leaders, skipping the public mempool where MEV bots watch for pending swaps.

A small lander tip is added to incentivize the bundle provider to include your transaction. The tip is paid in SOL and goes to the bundle provider, not to SharkBlock.


Off       → Standard Solana RPC (public mempool, no MEV protection)
Reduced   → Private lander, 0.0001 SOL tip (basic protection)
Secured   → Private lander, 0.001 SOL tip (maximum protection)

Three Protection Levels

You pick the level per strategy, separately for buys and sells.

Mode	Lander tip	Behavior	When to use
Off	None	Public mempool, lowest cost	Low-stakes trades, very liquid pools
Reduced	0.0001 SOL	Private bundle with minimum tip	Most trades — recommended default
Secured	0.001 SOL	Private bundle with priority tip	High-value trades, volatile markets

What Anti-MEV Protects Against

✅ Sandwich attacks — bots placing a buy before your buy and a sell after, capturing the price impact

✅ Front-running — bots seeing your pending tx and racing ahead with theirs

✅ Back-running — bots placing a tx immediately after yours to exploit the price move

❌ Not protection against: rugpulls, slippage from low liquidity, network congestion, your own strategy rules

Important Notes

Anti-MEV is separate from priority fees. Priority fees influence ordering within the public mempool; Anti-MEV bypasses the public mempool entirely.
The lander tip is on top of the Solana base fee and priority fee.
Anti-MEV does not guarantee your transaction lands first — it guarantees it isn’t visible to public-mempool MEV bots.
All swaps are Solana-only today.

Configuring Anti-MEV

Anti-MEV is set on your strategy’s buy preset and sell preset (independently):


buyPreset:
  antiMev: reduced     # off | reduced | secured
 
sellPreset:
  antiMev: secured     # off | reduced | secured

See Entry Strategies — Transaction Presets for details.

Recommendation

Default: reduced for both buy and sell — small cost, meaningful protection
Large positions: secured for sells to lock in gains without giving them back to MEV
Shadow Mode: any setting is fine — no real funds are at risk