Recently, I saw someone again watching large on-chain transfers and hot/cold wallets on exchanges, shouting "Smart money is here" whenever there's movement. To be honest, what I care more about is: did your ordinary swap get front-run? MEV, to put it simply, is about the ordering rights that create a "first-mover advantage." The most obvious victims aren't the big players, but retail traders who get slippage that isn't transparent and think they've executed just because they pressed the button.

The front-runners often earn that small profit by taking it out of your transaction price, or by making you pay more gas without getting a better price. Let's put fairness aside for now; the risk is real: you think you're trading with the pool, but in fact, you're racing against a group of people watching the mempool. Anyway, when I see unfamiliar routing or strange transaction receipts, I first assume "someone has tampered in front of you." The red-line issues aren't sugar-coated, and without solving the ordering problem, discussing "smart money" feels more like watching a spectacle.