MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)

MEV arises when transaction ordering affects economic outcomes. It is most visible in smart-contract and DEX environments, where block producers, sequencers, or searchers can profit from arbitrage, liquidation priority, or sandwiching by influencing inclusion and position within blocks.

Mitigations include private orderflow, batch auctions, encrypted mempools, and protocol changes that reduce harmful ordering games while preserving useful arbitrage. Simple payment-focused chains generally have less MEV surface area than complex DeFi environments, but transaction ordering can still matter for some applications.