The unknown hacker who drained roughly $7.7 million from the MEV bot jaredfromsubway.eth in June has rejected the operators' 50% bounty and instead made a losing trade, on-chain data shows. The exploiter sold 2,327 ETH for about $3.94 million, then repurchased 2,063 ETH at a higher price, losing 264 ETH — around $505,000 — in the process.
The attack happened on June 20-21, 2026. The hacker used fake liquidity pools and deceptive tokens to trick the automated sandwich bot into executing trades that drained funds. Within hours, millions of dollars moved through Tornado Cash, the crypto mixer.
How the bot was tricked
The jaredfromsubway.eth bot is designed to capture sandwich opportunities — trades that front-run and back-run large swaps. The attacker created fake liquidity pools and planted deceptive tokens that the bot's automated logic treated as legitimate. That let the hacker pull off the theft over two days without triggering any alarms.
The bot, which operates on Ethereum, relies on predictable patterns in the mempool. By feeding it poisoned data, the attacker turned the bot's own strategy against it. The result was a loss of roughly $7.7 million in ETH and other tokens, according to on-chain records.
Bounty offer rejected
After the theft, the team behind the bot offered a 50% bounty for the return of funds, with a 48-hour deadline. They threatened legal action if the exploiter ignored it. The deadline passed without a response, and the recent trades confirm the offer has been rejected.
The team's ultimatum was clear: return half the stolen amount within two days, or face legal consequences. The exploiter didn't bite. Instead, they moved millions through Tornado Cash and then made a series of trades that suggest they're trying to launder or flip the funds — not give them back.
A trade that went wrong
On-chain records show the exploiter sold 2,327 ETH at prices just under $1,700 each, receiving $3.94 million. Then, in a separate transaction, they bought 2,063 ETH at an average price of $1,912 per token, spending the same $3.94 million. The net result: a loss of 264 ETH, or roughly $505,000.
The trade looks like an attempt to profit from a price swing — sell high, buy back lower — but the market moved the wrong way. Instead of pocketing a gain, the attacker ended up with less ETH than they started with. It's a costly mistake, and one that leaves them with fewer resources to cover their tracks.
Tornado Cash transfers
Immediately after the June attack, the exploiter moved millions of dollars through Tornado Cash, a service that obscures the trail of crypto transactions. That's a common move for hackers looking to launder stolen funds, though it doesn't always prevent tracking.
The recent trades are the clearest signal yet that the bounty has been rejected. The operators' legal threat remains unanswered, and the funds have not been returned. What happens next is up to the team behind the bot — and the anonymous hacker who is still at large.
