Bitquery: fast Pump.fun buying held steady as Solana shortened block times
In brief
- About 53% of new Pump.fun coins drew an outside buy within 1.3 seconds, versus 52% later.
- First-block outside buying fell from 42% to 32%, though the first block itself got shorter.
- Bitquery's samples end Oct. 7, before Solana's final 200ms slot cut on Oct. 9.
- Detected sandwich patterns reached 33 per 10,000 swaps from Sept. 19 to Oct. 7.
- Bitquery's measure doesn't show that every fast buyer was automated or predatory.
What Bitquery measured
Bitquery's comparison set Aug. 5, 12 and 19 against Sept. 23, Sept. 30 and Oct. 7. An outside wallet, in its definition, is any wallet other than the coin's first buyer. The measure captures fast buying, but it doesn't establish that every qualifying buyer was automated or predatory (so it isn't proof of bot sniping by itself). Sniping, for context, means racing to buy a token in its first moments.
The samples end Oct. 7.
Solana's final reduction to a 200-millisecond slot target came on Oct. 9, after the trading observations ended, so that last step isn't in the data.
First-block numbers look like a bigger shift. The share of new coins getting an outside buy in their first block fell from 42% to 32%, per Bitquery. But the first block itself got shorter (about 0.27 seconds in the later sample versus 0.42 seconds before), and the roughly 1.3-second window spanned three slots earlier and five later. Measured over roughly equal elapsed time, the drop was much less visible.
Sandwich patterns kept showing up
A sandwich is when a trader buys ahead of someone else's swap and sells afterward at a price that swap pushed up. Bitquery reported about 30 detected sandwich patterns per 10,000 swaps at the start of August, 26 during Aug. 22-27 and 21 during Aug. 29-Sept. 17. The rate then rose to 33 during Sept. 19-Oct. 7.
Two caveats matter here. The denominator included swaps on Pump.fun and PumpSwap, its exchange. The counts also came from daily detections tied to bot wallets, taken before Bitquery applied its study's final filters.
Why faster slots don't settle it
The Solana Foundation's August modeling described competing effects on sandwich profitability. Less time to react can constrain an attacker, according to the Foundation's model. Shorter slots can also mean fewer competing trades use up the price movement a user allows before a swap executes, and if that allowance stays the same, a fast attacker may have more room to exploit it.
The Foundation still describes shorter slots as improving latency and narrowing a leader's control over block building. Bitquery's numbers don't dispute that. What they do suggest is that the share of new Pump.fun coins drawing a fast outside buy held roughly steady through Oct. 7, even as Solana's slots got quicker.
Frequently asked questions
Did faster Solana block times reduce fast buying of new Pump.fun coins?
Not by much, according to Bitquery analysis reported by CryptoSlate. About 53% of new coins received an outside buy within roughly 1.3 seconds in the earlier sample, compared with 52% in the later sample. The drop in first-block buying was much less visible when measured over roughly equal elapsed time.
Does Bitquery's data cover Solana's 200-millisecond slot target?
No. The comparison used Aug. 5, 12 and 19 against Sept. 23, Sept. 30 and Oct. 7. Solana's final reduction to a 200-millisecond slot target came on Oct. 9, after the trading observations ended, so that step was not covered.
Why might shorter slots not stop sandwich attacks?
The Solana Foundation's August modeling described competing effects. Less reaction time can limit an attacker, but shorter slots can also mean fewer competing trades use up the price movement a user allows before a swap executes. If that allowance stays the same, a fast attacker may have more room to exploit it.
