Mempool Latency Arbitrage
Mempool latency arbitrage is a strategy where traders or bots capitalize on the time delay between when a transaction is broadcast to the mempool and when it is actually included in a block. Because different nodes receive transaction data at slightly different times, a fast actor can identify a profitable opportunity and submit a transaction with a higher gas fee to get it confirmed first.
This effectively exploits the propagation speed of the network to jump ahead of others. In financial markets, this is a form of speed-based competition that mimics high-frequency trading in traditional finance.
It puts users with slower internet or less sophisticated software at a disadvantage. It highlights the importance of network infrastructure and the role of latency in price discovery within decentralized markets.