Major Ethereum Block Relayer bloXroute to Censor OFAC-Sanctioned Blocks

bloXroute Labs, one of the largest Ethereum block relayers, announced that it will start to censor OFAC-sanctioned blocks across all of its MEV (maximal extraction value) relays. bloXroute produced at least 400,000 Ethereum blocks from its two leading MEV relays.

In the announcment, bloXroute states:"Effectively immediately, all bloXroute relays will reject block bids if they contain OFAC transactions (Tx which interact with addresses appearing on the OFAC SDN List)." OFAC is a department of the US Treasury that is charged with enforcing economic and trade sanctions imposed by the US against countries and groups.

MEV Relays play a crucial role in the Ethereum block producing, with over 90% of all proposed blocks being passed through them. According to data from MEVWatch.info, around 34% of Ethereum blocks are currently censored due to those blocks containing OFAC-sanctioned transactions, down from a peak of 78% in Nov. last year.

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