MEV Bot Front-Runs $7.7M rsETH Exploit as Kelp Freezes Funds
MEV bot blocks Kelp rsETH vault exploit and intercepts $7.7M in assets See how mempool monitoring stopped the theft before funds could be drained
An MEV bot intercepted an attempted exploit targeting a Kelp rsETH vault, blocking roughly $7.7 million in assets before the attacker could complete the theft.
The bot, identified as Yoink, spotted the pending transaction in the mempool and moved first, sending a transaction that captured the vulnerable funds ahead of the attacker.
Kelp then paused parts of its protocol and froze the intercepted assets while the incident was reviewed. The episode highlights how public blockchain transaction visibility can be used by both attackers and monitoring bots, sometimes turning a likely loss into a disruption instead.