Last Friday’s Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse and subsequent contagion around what that means for the crypto industry drove a dramatic increase in the profitability for validators who run the Ethereum network.

As the tech industry blew up over the weekend, Ethereum validators saw profits from MEV (maximal extractable value) spike as the bank collapsed and as stablecoin USDC depegged from $1, according to data about Flashbots, which supplies the software responsible for 89% of all MEV activity.

MEV is a central component as part of trading on the Ethereum protocol. MEV refers to the additional profits that validators earn as a result of inserting or reordering transactions within a block. Some have compared MEV similar to arbitrage in traditional markets.

(By Margaux Nijkerk)