MEV for Hire - The Rise of Dark Pool Validators

MEV isn’t just some passive tax on-chain users pay when bots front-run their swaps. It’s evolved. What started as a handful of bots sandwiching trades has become a full-blown shadow industry—complete with auction markets, private relay networks, and validators running exclusive deals under the radar.

Welcome to the era of dark pool validators.

If you thought block production was neutral, think again. MEV is now a business model. Validators are no longer just securing the network — they’re auctioning off blockspace to the highest bidder, selling early access, and running private mempools to give their friends an edge. Some even bypass the public mempool altogether, working with searchers in sealed channels where the only rule is profit.

Private relays were supposed to help by keeping things fair. But they’ve just created new gatekeepers. Builders pitch transparency, but the reality is most of the game happens in places you can’t see, between actors you can’t track. It’s not censorship resistance anymore — it’s selective inclusion.

And the more these relays dominate, the more the chain becomes a dark pool. Users think they’re interacting with a public system. In reality? Their transactions are competing in a hidden auction they never agreed to.

This isn’t extraction anymore. It’s coordination. A structured, multi-player MEV machine where builders, validators, and searchers all get their cut. And if you’re not in that circle? You’re just funding it.

Decentralization promised fairness. MEV turned it into a bidding war.

And the block goes to whoever pays the most — not whoever needs it most.

REKT serves as a public platform for anonymous authors, we take no responsibility for the views or content hosted on REKT.

donate (ETH / ERC20): 0x3C5c2F4bCeC51a36494682f91Dbc6cA7c63B514C

disclaimer:

REKT is not responsible or liable in any manner for any Content posted on our Website or in connection with our Services, whether posted or caused by ANON Author of our Website, or by REKT. Although we provide rules for Anon Author conduct and postings, we do not control and are not responsible for what Anon Author post, transmit or share on our Website or Services, and are not responsible for any offensive, inappropriate, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable content you may encounter on our Website or Services. REKT is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of our Website or Services.