Front Running

Front running refers to the unethical practice where a trader, or more commonly a miner, positions their own transactions ahead of pending orders to profit from anticipated market moves. In the blockchain context, miners or bots might manipulate the order of transactions by paying higher gas fees to ensure their orders are processed first. For example, if a trader places a large buy order, a front runner might detect this and place a similar buy order just before the original order is executed, profiting from the price increase. This can disadvantage regular users who end up paying more or receiving less favorable trade terms due to the manipulated order. Front running is a problem in decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that do not have mechanisms to prevent it.