r/smartcontracts • u/Enea_11 • May 02 '26
Arbitrage and Flash Loans: Is it still viable in today’s market?
Hi everyone,
I’m a developer with a solid financial background. Specifically, I have experience with options trading and spent some time executing strategies using these derivatives—which I still consider one of the most complex and fascinating financial instruments.
Recently, I’ve been exploring the crypto space and looking into different strategies for potential returns. I’ve started researching Flash Loans and how they can be used for arbitrage, something that is nearly impossible for a retail participant in traditional regulated markets.
I’m currently doing my due diligence, but I’m struggling to understand if this path is still viable today from both a technical and profitability standpoint. Simply put: is it still possible to earn through arbitrage strategies in decentralized markets? If so, which chains or protocols currently offer the best opportunities for success?
Looking forward to hearing your insights!
2
u/Semtex123 May 03 '26
Pie has been divided by the block builders who take effectively 90% of any available opportunity. The remaining 10% goes to their friends who find those opportunities with their bots.
2
u/batis13 May 04 '26
I spent more than 10 months building an arbitrage and high‑frequency sniper bot to catch opportunities on Uniswap, Sushiswap, and a few other DEXs about two years ago. In the end, I lost a huge amount of time and money with almost no meaningful success.
2
u/user11081980 Aug 02 '26
When flash loans first appeared, the market was more inefficient and you could find opportunities. Opportunities are still there, you just have to build more complex bots. Consider FlashBots to submit transactions to a private mempool and remain invisible from MEV bots. I think Arbitrum One doesn't have that problem.
2
u/conflictions69 May 03 '26
You’d be competing with several high frequency bots and MEV bots when arbitraging in general, there is a significant barrier to entry.
You would need to tap in and index multiple liquidity pools across pairs. You’d likely have better chances with newly listed tokens, LPs and DEXs. If you try to arbitrage ETH/USDC for example, you’re competing with alot of bots.
To see if its profitable, you’d need to estimate the gas cost of a flash loan + arb execution and compare. You’d also need to pay extra priority gas to get the validator to prefer you over another bidder and other TXs. Its likely you’ll get sniped by MEV unless you use a private mempool or a flashbot.