Cryptocurrencies
‘Flash Boys’ Trading Bots Are Running Wild on Crypto Exchanges
- Cornell Tech detects front running at decentralized exchanges
- Researchers suggest impact could be in billions of dollars
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“Flash Boys”-like trading manipulation is rampant on certain cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a paper from researchers at Cornell Tech and several other universities.
Special arbitrage bots are anticipating and profiting from ordinary users’ trades on decentralized exchanges, which let them trade more directly, the authors said in a report released last week. The firms that deploy the autonomous trading programs manage to get priority ordering by paying higher fees, and use that advantage for practices such as front running, in which traders can see orders from others and manage to place their own first.