A generalized MEV bot beat the attacker to the rsETH exploit in the same block

When the exploit transaction hit the public mempool, a searcher's bot copied the payload, paid a higher priority fee, and landed first. Roughly 2,882 rsETH went to the front-runner's address instead of the original attacker.

The lesson for anyone testing an exploit or running a rescue: broadcasting a profitable, self-contained transaction to the public mempool hands it to every generalized front-runner watching. If the calldata alone extracts value, whoever pays the most gas wins, not whoever wrote it. Use a private relay (Flashbots and similar) for anything valuable, or design rescues so the recipient is fixed in the contract logic, not decided by who mines the block.

The Defiant

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