All terms
Acting on knowledge of a pending transaction before it executes.
Because pending transactions are public, bots can see a large order coming and position ahead of it. This is illegal in traditional markets and structurally unavoidable in a public mempool.
Mitigations exist: private relays, batch auctions, encrypted mempools and order flow auctions all reduce the exposure.
CoW Swap batches orders and settles them together specifically to remove this attack surface.
Where to go next
More security terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.