I used to really think that seeing the word “arbitrage” on-chain meant free money, and that the newbie misunderstanding was basically this: be quick, crank up the slippage, and you can always get in. Now I understand that most of the time, what you’re seeing is just the reason someone sandwiches you—you’re not paying a fee; you’re paying an “emotion tax”… It feels great in the moment when you place the order, but when you look back, the execution price feels like someone slapped you from behind.

In the past few days, I’ve been talking about modularity and the DA layer narrative. Developers are getting wildly excited, while users are completely lost—and I’m kind of half-lost too. Put simply, no matter how much the underlying puzzle is put together, for someone like me who trades perpetuals, I still have to keep an eye on the funding rate, whether positions are crowded, and whether there are “too smooth” opportunities on-chain—if it’s too smooth, it’s probably not meant for you. Anyway, whenever I see an unusually delicious price spread, I first default to assuming I’m the liquidity provider, not the chosen one, and I hold back my impulse.