In a rather expensive turn of events, Coinbase, the ever-vigilant guardian of digital assets, managed to lose a cool $300,000 in token fees after making the monumental mistake of approving assets to a 0x Project smart contract. Naturally, this opened the floodgates for a maximal extractable value (MEV) bot to feast upon the spoils.
It was Deebeez, a security researcher from Venn Network, who first waved the flag on this debacle, making a post on X (formerly Twitter) to enlighten us all. Apparently, Coinbase’s corporate wallet, in a spectacular display of trust, decided to engage with 0x’s “swapper” contract, which, as the name suggests, is a tool for executing swaps, but not, you know, receiving token approvals. Who would’ve thought?
Since anyone can call this contract to perform arbitrary actions, granting approvals in this case is like leaving your front door wide open and inviting thieves in. “This same swapper has had some issues with Zora claims on Base,” Deebeez wrote, linking to previous instances where malicious actors didn’t even need to crack code to swipe the funds. Oh, the magic of modern finance!
In the most dramatic fashion, screenshots shared by Deebeez showed Coinbase’s wallet approving tokens like Amp, MyOneProtocol, DEXTools, and Swell Network. And in no time, an MEV bot pounced on the unsuspecting contract, moving those sweet, sweet tokens into its own pockets.
MEV Bot: The Dark Knight of DeFi
Deebeez, clearly amused, described the MEV bot as having been “lurking in the dark,” awaiting the day when someone (or something) would approve the contract, thus enabling its ghoulish harvest. “Their dream came true thanks to Coinbase,” he quipped, presumably enjoying a good laugh from the sidelines.
In a moment of harsh reflection, Deebeez called this entire fiasco an “expensive lesson” for Coinbase. One hopes the team will now adopt a more discerning approach to approving contracts in the future-unless, of course, they enjoy paying for such lessons.
Coinbase’s chief security officer, Philip Martin, did his best to assure the public that the incident was an “isolated issue,” claiming it was due to a minor configuration change in one of the exchange’s corporate DEX wallets. “No customer funds were affected,” he assured, adding that Coinbase swiftly revoked the token allowances and moved the remaining funds to a new corporate wallet. How convenient.
MEV Bot Exploits and Ether Snafus: A Never-Ending Saga
In case anyone is wondering, this wasn’t the first time an MEV bot has been involved in a costly exploit. Back in April, one such bot lost $180,000 in Ether (ETH) after a malicious actor exploited a vulnerability in the bot’s access control system. The attacker swapped the bot’s ETH for a worthless token-truly a masterpiece of malicious strategy. A few months earlier, in 2023, a rogue validator had exploited MEV bots trying “sandwich trades,” siphoning off a staggering $25 million in digital assets, including WBTC, USDC, USDt, DAI, and WETH. What a fun time for all involved!
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2025-08-14 13:05