{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,3]],"date-time":"2026-02-03T21:19:16Z","timestamp":1770153556840,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":78,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"3","funder":[{"name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme","award":["952226"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["952226"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. ACM Meas. Anal. Comput. Syst."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Decentralized finance (DeFi) markets spread across Layer-1 (L1) and Layer-2 (L2) blockchains rely on arbitrage to keep prices aligned. Today most price gaps are closed against centralized exchanges (CEXes), whose deep liquidity and fast execution make them the primary venue for price discovery. As trading volume migrates on-chain, cross-chain arbitrage between decentralized exchanges (DEXes) will become the canonical mechanism for price alignment. Yet, despite its importance to DeFi-and the on-chain transparency making real activity tractable in a way CEX-to-DEX arbitrage is not-existing research remains confined to hypothetical opportunity analyses and conceptual overviews.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>In this paper, we study cross-chain arbitrage with a year-long measurement. We analyze transactions from September 2023 to August 2024 across nine blockchains and identify 242,535 executed arbitrages totaling 868.64 million USD volume. Activity clusters on Ethereum-centric L1-L2 pairs, grows 5.5x over the study period, and surges-higher volume, more trades, lower fees-after the Dencun upgrade (March 13, 2024) which cut costs for rollups. High-volume activity typically involves long-tail assets and moderately correlate with major asset prices. Most trades use pre-positioned inventory (66.96%) and settle in 9s, whereas bridge-based arbitrages take 242s, underscoring the latency cost of today's bridges. Market concentration is high: the five largest addresses execute more than half of all trades, and one alone captures almost 40% of daily volume post-Dencun. We conclude that cross-chain arbitrage fosters vertical integration, centralizing sequencing infrastructure and economic power and thereby exacerbating censorship, liveness, and finality risks; decentralizing block building and lowering entry barriers are critical to countering these threats.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3771566","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,2]],"date-time":"2025-12-02T20:07:03Z","timestamp":1764706023000},"page":"1-33","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Cross-Chain Arbitrage: The Next Frontier of MEV in Decentralized Finance"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-7508-7112","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Burak","family":"\u00d6z","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany and Flashbots, Munich, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6992-703X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christof Ferreira","family":"Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC-ID \/ Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico (IST), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6727-5031","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christoph","family":"Schlegel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Flashbots, Zurich, Switzerland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0779-0765","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bruno","family":"Mazorra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Flashbots, Barcelona, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-1677-6791","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jonas","family":"Gebele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9090-5633","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filip","family":"Rezabek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6667-5452","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Florian","family":"Matthes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","unstructured":"Aave. 2025. Aave Documentation. URL: https:\/\/aave.com\/docs."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_2_1","unstructured":"Across Docs. 2025. FAQ | Across Documentation. URL: https:\/\/docs.across.to\/user-docs\/additional-info\/faq."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_3_1","unstructured":"Hayden Adams Noah Zinsmeister and Dan Robinson. 2020. Uniswap v2 Core."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_4_1","unstructured":"Hayden Adams Noah Zinsmeister Moody Salem River Keefer and Dan Robinson. 2021. Uniswap v3 Core."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_5_1","unstructured":"Aerodrome. 2025. Aerodrome Finance. URL: https:\/\/www.aerodrome.finance\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_6_1","unstructured":"Allium. 2025. Allium - Enterprise Blockchain Data Platform. URL: https:\/\/www.ium.so\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_7_1","unstructured":"Allium Docs. 2025. Overview - Allium Documentation Hub. URL: https:\/\/docs.ium.so\/historical-data\/prices."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_8_1","unstructured":"Arbitrum Docs. 2025a. A gentle introduction to Arbitrum | Arbitrum Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.arbitrum.io\/welcome\/arbitrum-gentle-introduction."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_9_1","volume-title":"Quickstart: Arbitrum Bridge | Arbitrum Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.arbitrum.io\/arbitrum-bridge\/quickstart.","author":"Docs Arbitrum","year":"2025","unstructured":"Arbitrum Docs. 2025b. Quickstart: Arbitrum Bridge | Arbitrum Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.arbitrum.io\/arbitrum-bridge\/quickstart."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_10_1","unstructured":"Axelar. 2025. Exploring Cross-Chain Solutions: how to Bridge Into Arbitrum. URL: https:\/\/www.axelar.network\/blog\/arbitrum-bridge."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_11_1","unstructured":"Base Docs. 2025. Base Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.base.org\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_12_1","unstructured":"Binance. 2025. Binance Data Collection. URL: https:\/\/data.binance.vision\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_13_1","unstructured":"BNB Chain Docs. 2025. BNB Chain. URL: https:\/\/docs.bnbchain.org."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_14_1","unstructured":"BuilderNet. 2025. Welcome to BuilderNet. https:\/\/buildernet.org\/docs"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_15_1","unstructured":"Celer cBridge Docs. 2025. FAQ | Celer cBridge. URL: https:\/\/cbridge-docs.celer.network\/reference\/faq."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_16_1","unstructured":"Vishal Chawla. 2024. Base sees big surge in transactions and users after Dencun upgrade. https:\/\/www.theblock.co\/post\/283056\/base-dencun-transactions-users-surge Section: Layer 2s and Scaling."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_17_1","unstructured":"Eugene Chen Alex Toberoff Suraj Srinivasan and Ankit Chiplunkar. 2023. A Tale of Two Arbitrages. https:\/\/frontier.tech\/a-tale-of-two-arbitrages URL: https:\/\/frontier.tech\/a-tale-of-two-arbitrages."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_18_1","unstructured":"CoinGecko. 2025. Top Decentralized Exchanges Ranked by Volume | CoinGecko. URL: https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/exchanges\/decentralized."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/SP40000.2020.00040"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_20_1","unstructured":"Data Always. 2024. Understanding Minimum Blob Base Fees - Layer 2. https:\/\/ethresear.ch\/t\/understanding-minimum-blob-base-fees\/20489 Section: Layer 2."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_21_1","unstructured":"DefiLlama. 2025a. Aerodrome - DefiLlama. URL: https:\/\/defillama.com\/dexs\/aerodrome."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_22_1","unstructured":"DefiLlama. 2025b. DEXs Protocols Rankings - DefiLlama. URL: https:\/\/defillama.com\/protocols\/dexs."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_23_1","unstructured":"DefiLlama. 2025c. Ethereum DEX Volume - DefiLlama. URL: https:\/\/defillama.com\/dexs\/chains\/ethereum."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_24_1","unstructured":"Polygon Docs. 2025a. PoS - Polygon Knowledge Layer. URL: https:\/\/docs.polygon.technology\/pos\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_25_1","unstructured":"Polygon Docs. 2025b. PoS to Etheruem - Polygon Knowledge Layer. URL: https:\/\/docs.polygon.technology\/pos\/how-to\/bridging\/ethereum-polygon\/matic-to-ethereum."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_26_1","unstructured":"Justin Drake. 2023. Based rollups-superpowers from L1 sequencing - Layer 2. https:\/\/ethresear.ch\/t\/based-rollups-superpowers-from-l1-sequencing\/15016 Section: Layer 2."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_27_1","unstructured":"Dune Analytics. 2025. Dune - Crypto Analytics Powered by Community. URL: https:\/\/dune.com\/home."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_28_1","volume-title":"SoK: Transparent Dishonesty: Front-Running Attacks on Blockchain. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security - FC 2019 International Workshops, VOTING and WTSC, St. Kitts, St. Kitts and Nevis","volume":"189","author":"Eskandari Shayan","year":"2019","unstructured":"Shayan Eskandari, Seyedehmahsa Moosavi, and Jeremy Clark. 2019. SoK: Transparent Dishonesty: Front-Running Attacks on Blockchain. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security - FC 2019 International Workshops, VOTING and WTSC, St. Kitts, St. Kitts and Nevis, February 18-22, 2019, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 11599), Andrea Bracciali, Jeremy Clark, Federico Pintore, Peter B. R\u00f8nne, and Massimiliano Sala (Eds.). Springer, 170-189."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_29_1","unstructured":"Ethereum.org. 2025. Cancun - Deneb (Dencun) FAQ. URL: https:\/\/ethereum.org\/en\/roadmap\/dencun\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_30_1","first-page":"1343","volume-title":"Frontrunner Jones and the Raiders of the Dark Forest: An Empirical Study of Frontrunning on the Ethereum Blockchain. In 30th USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2021","author":"Torres Christof Ferreira","year":"2021","unstructured":"Christof Ferreira Torres, Ramiro Camino, and Radu State. 2021. Frontrunner Jones and the Raiders of the Dark Forest: An Empirical Study of Frontrunning on the Ethereum Blockchain. In 30th USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2021, August 11-13, 2021, Michael D. Bailey and Rachel Greenstadt (Eds.). USENIX Association, 1343-1359."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_31_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3658644.3690259"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_32_1","unstructured":"Flashbots. 2024. Mempool Dumpster. URL: https:\/\/github.com\/flashbots\/mempool-dumpster."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_33_1","unstructured":"Flashbots Docs. 2025. MEV Protection - Block MEV With Flashbots Protect RPC. URL: https:\/\/docs.flashbots.net\/flashbots-protect\/overview."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_34_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4230\/LIPIcs.AFT.2023.19"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_35_1","volume-title":"Akaki Mamageishvili, Benjamin Livshits, and Edward W. Felten.","author":"Fritsch Robin","year":"2024","unstructured":"Robin Fritsch, Maria In\u00eas Silva, Akaki Mamageishvili, Benjamin Livshits, and Edward W. Felten. 2024. MEV Capture Through Time-Advantaged Arbitrage. arXiv:2410.10797 [cs.DC] https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2410.10797"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_36_1","unstructured":"Krzysztof Gogol Johnnatan Messias Deborah Miori Claudio Tessone and Benjamin Livshits. 2024. Cross-Rollup MEV: Non-Atomic Arbitrage Across L2 Blockchains. http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2406.02172 arXiv:2406.02172."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_37_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4230\/LIPIcs.AFT.2023.20"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_38_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/SP54263.2024.00256"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_39_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3700424"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_40_1","unstructured":"LayerZero Docs. 2025. LayerZero Documentation | LayerZero. URL: https:\/\/docs.layerzero.network\/v2."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_41_1","volume-title":"International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS)","author":"Mazor Ori","year":"2023","unstructured":"Ori Mazor and Ori Rottenstreich. 2023. An Empirical Study of Cross-chain Arbitrage in Decentralized Exchanges. https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2023\/1898 Publication info: Published elsewhere. Minor revision. International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS) 2024."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_42_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3560832.3563433"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_43_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/3620237.3620422"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_44_1","unstructured":"Conor McMenamin. 2023. SoK: Cross-Domain MEV. arXiv:2308.04159 [cs.CR] https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2308.04159"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_45_1","unstructured":"MEV Blocker. 2025. Mev Blocker - The best MEV protection under the sun. URL: https:\/\/cow.fi\/mev-blocker."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_46_1","unstructured":"MEXC. 2025. About MEXC | User-friendly Cryptocurrency Service Provider. URL: https:\/\/www.mexc.co\/about."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_47_1","volume-title":"Automated market making and loss-versus-rebalancing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.06046","author":"Milionis Jason","year":"2022","unstructured":"Jason Milionis, Ciamac C Moallemi, Tim Roughgarden, and Anthony Lee Zhang. 2022. Automated market making and loss-versus-rebalancing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.06046 (2022)."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_48_1","unstructured":"Michael Neuder Vitalik Buterin Francesco D'Amato Terence Tsao Potuz and Manav Gupta. 2023. EIP-7547: Inclusion lists. https:\/\/eips.ethereum.org\/EIPS\/eip-7547. Ethereum Improvement Proposals no. 7547."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_49_1","unstructured":"Mike Neuder and Max Resnick. 2024. Concurrent Block Proposers in Ethereum - Proof-of-Stake \/ Block proposer. https:\/\/ethresear.ch\/t\/concurrent-block-proposers-in-ethereum\/18777"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_50_1","unstructured":"Alexandre Obadia Alejo Salles Lakshman Sankar Tarun Chitra Vaibhav Chellani and Philip Daian. 2021. Unity is Strength: A Formalization of Cross-Domain Maximal Extractable Value. arXiv:2112.01472 [cs.CR] https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2112.01472"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_51_1","unstructured":"OmniCat. 2025. OmniCat. URL: https:\/\/omnicat.wtf."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_52_1","unstructured":"Optimism Docs. 2025a. Using the Standard Bridge | Optimism Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.optimism.io\/builders\/app-developers\/bridging\/standard-bridge."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_53_1","unstructured":"Optimism Docs. 2025b. Welcome to the Optimism Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.optimism.io\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_54_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3605768.3623563"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_55_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3605098.3635990"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_56_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4230\/LIPIcs.AFT.2024.22"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_57_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/296071"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_58_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/SP46214.2022.9833734"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_59_1","unstructured":"Team Rocket Maofan Yin Kevin Sekniqi Robbert van Renesse and Emin G\u00fcn Sirer. 2020. Scalable and Probabilistic Leaderless BFT Consensus through Metastability. arXiv:1906.08936 [cs.DC] https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1906.08936"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_60_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4230\/LIPIcs.AFT.2023.30"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_61_1","unstructured":"Scroll. 2024. Scroll White Paper. https:\/\/scroll.io\/files\/whitepaper.pdf. Accessed: 2025-06-17."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_62_1","unstructured":"Scroll Docs. 2025. Bridge | Scroll Documentation. URL: https:\/\/docs.scroll.io\/en\/user-guide\/bridge."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_63_1","unstructured":"Superbridge Docs. 2025. What is bridging? | Superbridge Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.superbridge.app\/what-is-bridging."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_64_1","unstructured":"Synapse Docs. 2025. Transaction Support FAQ | Synapse Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.synapseprotocol.com\/docs\/Support\/Transaction-Support."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_65_1","unstructured":"Espresso Systems. 2024. The Espresso Sequencer. https:\/\/hackmd.io\/@EspressoSystems\/EspressoSequencer"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_66_1","unstructured":"Thomas Thiery Francesco D'amato and Julian Ma. 2024. Fork-Choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL): A simple committee-based inclusion list proposal - Proof-of-Stake \/ Block proposer. https:\/\/ethresear.ch\/t\/fork-choice-enforced-inclusion-lists-focil-a-simple-committee-based-inclusion-list-proposal\/19870"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_67_1","unstructured":"Threshold Network Docs. 2025. What is the Threshold Network? | Threshold Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.threshold.network\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_68_1","volume-title":"AUCIL: An Inclusion List Design for Rational Parties. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2025\/194. https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2025\/194","author":"Wadhwa Sarisht","year":"2025","unstructured":"Sarisht Wadhwa, Julian Ma, Thomas Thiery, Barnabe Monnot, Luca Zanolini, Fan Zhang, and Kartik Nayak. 2025. AUCIL: An Inclusion List Design for Rational Parties. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2025\/194. https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2025\/194"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_69_1","unstructured":"Anton Wahrst\u00e4tter Jens Ernstberger Aviv Yaish Liyi Zhou Kaihua Qin Taro Tsuchiya Sebastian Steinhorst Davor Svetinovic Nicolas Christin Mikolaj Barczentewicz and Arthur Gervais. 2023. Blockchain Censorship. https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2305.18545v2"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_70_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3487553.3524201"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_71_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/biomet\/29.3-4.350"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_72_1","unstructured":"winnsterx. 2025. searcherbuilder.pics. URL: https:\/\/github.com\/winnsterx\/searcherbuilder.pics\/blob\/main\/labels\/non_mev_contracts.py."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_73_1","volume-title":"Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum project yellow paper","author":"Gavin Wood","year":"2014","unstructured":"Gavin Wood et al., 2014. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum project yellow paper, Vol. 151, 2014 (2014), 1-32."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_74_1","unstructured":"Wormhole Docs. 2025. Native Token Transfers Rate Limiting | Wormhole Docs. URL: https:\/\/wormhole.com\/docs\/build\/contract-integrations\/native-token-transfers\/configuration\/rate-limiting."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_75_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/SP61157.2025.00157"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_76_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3689931.3694911"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_77_1","unstructured":"ZKsync Docs. 2025a. Bridges - ZKsync Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.zksync.io\/zksync-era\/ecosystem\/bridges."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_78_1","unstructured":"ZKsync Docs. 2025b. ZKsync Docs. URL: https:\/\/docs.zksync.io\/."}],"container-title":["Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3771566","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,3]],"date-time":"2025-12-03T17:25:25Z","timestamp":1764782725000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3771566"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"references-count":78,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3771566"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3771566","relation":{},"ISSN":["2476-1249"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2476-1249","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2025-12-02","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}