The past weekend's boom in transactions involving PEPE drove Ethereum validators to profit more than any other period so far. MEV-Boost, a software by Flashbots and used by Ethereum validators to maximize earnings, saw total revenue including transaction fees that nearly equaled those earned when Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange crashed.

MEV, or maximal extractable value, is a feature of cryptocurrency trading. It represents the amount of additional revenue that validators can acquire by reordering or optimizing the order of transactions within a block, a practice similar to the more conventional front-running. MEV-Boost serves as the bridge between validators and the network, allowing them to separate block builders, in turn receiving MEV rewards. Generally, MEV and gas fees are the primary source of income for Ethereum validators, however, during the PEPE craze, it was possible to make more money from the transaction fees spike as well.

As 85% of Ethereum validators are connected to MEV-Boost, most of the data reflecting MEV activity is captured from it. As per Toni Wahrstätter, an Ethereum researcher using the MEV-Boost dashboard, the only time when MEV and gas fees have been higher than those during the PEPE craze was during the SVB bank run and depeg of USDC.

Since then, gas fees have returned to prior levels with the falloff of PEPE transactions, along with the announcement of PEPE's listing on Binance, the centralized exchange. This episode serves as an interesting example of the substantial potential of MEV to generate higher returns for Ethereum validators, especially when high gas fees accompany the explosion in crypto trading.



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