Marinade DAO Plans to Block 73 Validators Over Sandwich Attacks
Marinade DAO, a on the Solana blockchain, has proposed blocking 73 validators from its Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) due to their involvement in sandwich attacks. The proposal, known as MIP-9, aims to prevent validators from manipulating transaction ordering for profit at the expense of retail users.
The blocklist targets validators who have shown a pattern of sandwich attacks - a practice where transactions are front-run and back-run to generate profits. Data collected across multiple epochs shows these validators were responsible for a significant portion of such activities on the network, affecting market fairness and decentralization.
Research by the Marinade Labs team revealed that between epochs 680 and 735, the identified validators received between 2.0% and 20.0% of total stake allocations through SAM. In epoch 710, these validators controlled approximately 1.27 million SOL, representing about 15.3% of the total stake in the system.
The financial impact of removing these validators has been analyzed. According to the proposal, the SAM APY would decrease by 0.9 percentage points on average, with a maximum reduction of 4.5 percentage points. Marinade DAO views this as an acceptable trade-off for improved network integrity.
The proposal includes an appeals process for validators who believe they were wrongly identified. Those who can prove reform may be reinstated after a one-month observation period, while repeat offenders face permanent exclusion from the platform.
Staking Facilities has expressed support for the initiative, while Hanabi Staking reports identifying additional malicious validators that may control over 50% of Marinade stake, suggesting the need for ongoing monitoring and enforcement.
