What Are the Key Differences in Front-Running Prevention between CEXs and DEXs?

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) prevent front-running primarily through internal controls, regulatory oversight, and legal prohibitions, as they control the order book and transaction execution. They rely on surveillance and anti-fraud systems.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs), however, operate on public blockchains where pending transactions are visible in the mempool, making traditional legal prohibitions ineffective. DEX prevention relies heavily on technical measures like private transaction relays (Flashbots), commit-reveal schemes, and specialized smart contract logic to obscure or randomize transaction ordering.

What Is the Trust Trade-off When Using a Private Mempool Service?
How Do CEXs Typically Enforce Rules against Internal Front-Running?
What Is the Primary Difference in Front-Running Prevention between a CEX and a DEX?
What Is the “Mempool” and Why Is Its Transparency a DEX Vulnerability?
In What Way Do Layer-2 Scaling Solutions Reduce Front-Running Risk?
What Is the Primary Difference in Front-Running Risk between CEXs and DEXs?
How Do ‘Private Transaction Relays’ Attempt to Mitigate Front-Running from the Mempool?
How Do CEXs Ensure Fair Transaction Execution without Mempool Transparency?

Glossar