Counter-MEV — Approval-Risk & Honeypot Feed

Defensive intelligence for searchers and bot operators, from the Seneschal data API. Auto-refresh every 60 s.

Why this feed exists

In December 2025 a top sandwich bot (JaredFromSubway) was drained of ~$7.5M — not by a clever contract exploit, but by standard ERC-20 approvals. The bot had granted spending allowances to addresses it shouldn't have, and a transferFrom swept it clean. Honeypot & fake-wrapper tokens (fWETH, fUSDC) run the same play in reverse: they bait automated buyers into positions they can never profitably exit.

This feed is the early-warning system: we run the scanners against mainnet and publish, risk-scored, who is harvesting approvals, which tokens are honeypots, and which bots are bleeding gas. Screen an address before you approve it; avoid the bait; and find the competitors quietly losing money.

Malicious spenders

approval-harvesting contracts

Honeypot / bait tokens

lookalikes & fee-on-transfer traps

Dangling approvals at risk

live grants to flagged spenders

Gas bled by bots

failed-swap gas in the window

Risk distribution by category

How many flagged entries sit in each severity band. Critical = a confirmed sweeping drainer or a strong honeypot tell.

Top bleeding bots — gas burned on failed swaps

Competitors losing money on reverted swaps. Leads, not threats.

Most dangerous spenders — free teaser

SpenderScoreBandVictimsTop signal
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Honeypot / bait tokens — free teaser

TokenSymbolScoreTop signal
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Unlock the full feed

This page shows free aggregates + a 3-row teaser per category. The uncapped, fully-annotated set — every flagged spender with its victim set and sample sweep tx, every honeypot token with its flags, and every live dangling approval — is one x402 micropayment away.

$0.05 / call
USDC on Base · no account, no API key

Pay-per-call over the x402 protocol. Compatible clients (e.g. @x402/fetch) sign + retry automatically.

Premium endpoint
GET /v1/premium/counter-mev
  ?category=spenders|tokens|approvals|bleeding_bots
  &min_score=70        # 0..100
  &limit=500           # max 1000

How to use it

1. Free summary — counts, distribution + teasers:

curl https://api.seneschal.space/v1/counter-mev/summary

2. Premium feed — full risk-scored set (x402):

import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from '@x402/fetch';
const f = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, wallet);
const r = await f(
  'https://api.seneschal.space/v1/premium/counter-mev?min_score=80'
);
const { malicious_spenders, risky_tokens } = await r.json();

3. MCP — for AI agents (Claude/Cursor):

tool: seneschal_counter_mev
  { "view": "detail", "category": "spenders", "min_score": 80 }
  { "address": "0xSPENDER" }   # single-address risk lookup

Who pays for this & why

  • Bot operators — screen any spender before granting an approval, and audit your own live allowances against the flagged set. Don't be the next Jared.
  • Sandwich / arb searchers — drop honeypot & fee-on-transfer tokens from your target set before you simulate, not after you're stuck in an unsellable bag.
  • Wallets & security tools — a cheap, pay-per-call is-this-spender-a-drainer? oracle for approval-time warnings.
  • Anyone hunting MEV — the bleeding-bots leaderboard shows which competitors are losing gas, where, and why.

Every row ships its own risk_factors (the per-flag score breakdown) so you can audit the call, not trust a black box. Heuristic — always verify on-chain before acting.