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CoW Swap vs Flashbots Protect

How CoW Swap and Flashbots Protect differ on type, protection, rebates and what they’re built for.

CoW SwapFlashbots Protect
TypeBatch-auction DEXPrivate RPC
How it worksOrders settle in batches at one uniform clearing price, chosen by competing solvers, with Coincidence-of-Wants matching — removing the ordering advantage MEV bots exploit. Same team as MEV Blocker.Sends your transaction privately to the Flashbots block-building auction. MEV-Share selectively shares hints so searchers can bid to back-run it, sharing the profit with you.
Protects againstSandwiching/frontrunning via uniform-price batch auctionsFrontrunning, sandwiching & failed-tx reverts
RebatesPrice surplus returned to you90% of back-run MEV + gas-fee refunds
ChainsEthereum, Gnosis, Arbitrum, BaseEthereum
SetupTrade on CoW SwapAdd RPC rpc.flashbots.net to your wallet
Best forSpot swaps that want best price + protectionThe conservative, battle-tested default

CoW Swap

  • MEV-protected by design (batch auctions)
  • Coincidence-of-Wants can beat AMM price
  • Gasless limit orders
  • Swaps only, not arbitrary transactions
  • Batch settlement adds some delay

Flashbots Protect

  • Most battle-tested private RPC
  • MEV-Share back-run rebates (90%) + gas refunds
  • Permissionless — no API key
  • Ethereum mainnet only
  • Back-run-only sharing today

Bottom line

Pick CoW Swap for spot swaps that want best price + protection; pick Flashbots Protect for the conservative, battle-tested default.