How Does a Private Mempool Service Earn Revenue?

A private mempool service, such as a Flashbots relay, primarily earns revenue by acting as an intermediary between searchers and validators. Searchers submit profitable bundles to the relay, which then forwards them to the validator.

The searcher's bid (or "bribe") for block inclusion is split between the relay and the validator. The relay's share is its service fee for providing the private, low-latency communication channel and the MEV-optimization service.

What Is a “Searcher” in the MEV Ecosystem?
How Do MEV-boost Auctions Attempt to Democratize Access to MEV?
What Is the Role of a “Searcher” in the MEV Ecosystem?
What Is a ‘MEV-Share’ Protocol and How Does It Redistribute MEV?
What Is the Relationship between a Searcher and a Block Builder in the Post-Merge Ethereum Ecosystem?
What Are the Negative Consequences for a Miner If the Pool Sets the Share Difficulty Too High?
How Does the “Bribe” Mechanism Work in MEV Extraction?
Do Centralized Exchanges Have an Equivalent to MEV Searchers and Validators?

Glossar