Analysts from Flashbots have stated that MEV bots have become a major obstacle to blockchain scaling.
MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) bots are automated programs that look for profit in online trading, especially on decentralized exchanges.
Flashbots found that these bots regularly consume more than 50% of the gas on leading blockchains while paying less than 10% of the total fees. This increases the base cost of transactions for regular users.
Bots often send hundreds of transactions for a single low-margin arbitrage. While this is profitable for the bots, it is wasteful for the network, burdening nodes and users, the report says.
The problem is especially acute for networks like Base, where two bots account for more than 80% of spam transactions.
Between November 2024 and February 2025, Base added 11 million gas/s of capacity, almost all of which was consumed by spambots, Flashbots said.
On the blockchain Solana MEV bots now occupy about 40% of the network space.
To address the MEV bots issue, Flashbots has proposed replacing gas-based bidding with a two-step process. This would free up much of the overloaded capacity, lower tariffs, and make room for new applications.
