Development of a Trading Bot for DEX on Base
Developing a trading bot for DEX on Base means solving the problem of generating income through arbitrage in a network with low gas and high throughput. Base, built on OP Stack and managed by Coinbase, offers unique conditions: transactions confirm in seconds, and gas costs are tens of times lower than Ethereum. However, automating trading requires deep understanding of Aerodrome and Uniswap V3 architecture, optimizing smart contracts, and correctly calculating slippage. Our team of blockchain engineers with ten years of experience has built over 50 bots for different networks, and we are ready to share proven solutions. Thanks to low gas on Base, you can save up to $500 monthly on operational costs compared to mainnet. The cost of developing such a bot is determined after analysis.
DEX Ecosystem on Base
Key platforms for integration:
| DEX | Model | Volume/day | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aerodrome Finance | ve(3,3) AMM + CLOB | $1B+ | Fork of Velodrome, native DEX on Base |
| Uniswap V3 | Concentrated liquidity | $500M+ | Standard V3, same contracts as mainnet |
| BaseSwap | Fork of Uniswap V2 | $50M | Less liquidity |
| SushiSwap | V2 + Trident | $20M | Multichain, cross-DEX arbitrage |
Aerodrome is a priority for deep integration: 60%+ of DEX volume on Base goes through it.
Why Base Suits Trading Bots?
Base uses a centralized sequencer managed by Coinbase, which fundamentally changes the MEV landscape. There is no public mempool in the Ethereum sense — transactions are published atomically. Classic sandwich attacks via frontrunning are practically impossible, but arbitrage between DEXes works efficiently. Hosting your server in us-east-1 (AWS) gives minimal latency to the sequencer. Transactions are sent via https://mainnet.base.org RPC or through Alchemy/Infura.
Aerodrome: Architecture Important for the Bot
Aerodrome inherits Velodrome V2 architecture with two types of pools:
Volatile pools (Pool.sol): standard x*y=k formula. Suitable for uncorrelated pairs (ETH/USDC, cbBTC/USDC).
Stable pools (Pool.sol with stable=true): curve x³y + y³x = k — optimized for assets close in price (USDC/USDT, cbETH/wstETH). Important: for stable pools, getAmountOut() gives a different result with the same inputs.
// Aerodrome Router ABI
const AERODROME_ROUTER = '0xcF77a3Ba9A5CA399B7c97c74d54e5b1Beb874E43'
const routes = [{
from: WETH_ADDRESS,
to: USDC_ADDRESS,
stable: false, // For volatile pair
factory: AERODROME_FACTORY
}]
const amounts = await aerodromeRouter.getAmountsOut(amountIn, routes)
A mistake developers with EVM backgrounds make: using stable: false for all pairs. For the USDC/USDbC pair, this gives a calculated amountOut 5–10% worse than actual due to the wrong curve.
ve(3,3) and Epoch Rewards
Aerodrome uses veAERO (locked voting tokens) to direct emissions to pools. For an arbitrage bot, this is indirectly important: pools with high emissions attract more LPs and have lower slippage. Tracking voting and emissions helps predict where deep liquidity will appear.
How Arbitrage with Flash Loans Works on Base?
The most accessible and stable MEV on Base is arbitrage between different DEXes:
- Aerodrome vs Uniswap V3: the same pair (ETH/USDC) trades on two different venues with different prices due to asynchronous LP behavior.
- Stablecoin arbitrage: USDC vs USDbC (bridged USDC) vs axlUSDC — often trade at slight discount/premium on different pools.
- cbETH / wstETH arbitrage: derivative ETH assets, price pegged to ETH via exchange rate. When deviating from fair value — arbitrage opportunity.
Basic bot cycle:
async function checkArbitrage(tokenA: Address, tokenB: Address) {
// Parallel price requests from two DEXes
const [aeroPrice, uniPrice] = await Promise.all([
getAerodromePrice(tokenA, tokenB, amountIn),
getUniswapV3Price(tokenA, tokenB, amountIn)
])
const priceDiff = Math.abs(aeroPrice - uniPrice) / Math.min(aeroPrice, uniPrice)
if (priceDiff > MIN_PROFIT_THRESHOLD) {
const gasEstimate = await estimateArbitrageGas(...)
const gasCostUSD = gasEstimate * gasPrice * ethPrice
const grossProfit = calculateProfit(aeroPrice, uniPrice, amountIn)
if (grossProfit > gasCostUSD * 1.5) { // At least 1.5x gas coverage
await executeArbitrage(...)
}
}
}
Atomic Arbitrage via Flash Loan
On Base, Aave V3 flash loans are available (contract deployed on Base). Atomic arbitrage: take flash loan → buy cheaper → sell more expensive → repay flash loan + fee (0.09%). Flash loan fee sets the minimum profitability threshold — price difference must be > 0.09% + gas.
contract BaseArbitrageBot is IFlashLoanSimpleReceiver {
function executeArbitrage(address token, uint256 amount, bytes calldata params) external {
POOL.flashLoanSimple(address(this), token, amount, params, 0);
}
function executeOperation(
address asset, uint256 amount, uint256 premium,
address, bytes calldata params
) external override returns (bool) {
(address dexA, address dexB, bytes memory swapDataA, bytes memory swapDataB)
= abi.decode(params, (address, address, bytes, bytes));
IERC20(asset).approve(dexA, amount);
(bool successA,) = dexA.call(swapDataA);
require(successA, "Swap A failed");
uint256 received = IERC20(outputToken).balanceOf(address(this));
IERC20(outputToken).approve(dexB, received);
(bool successB,) = dexB.call(swapDataB);
require(successB, "Swap B failed");
uint256 repayAmount = amount + premium;
IERC20(asset).approve(address(POOL), repayAmount);
return true;
}
}
The contract is minimalistic. No storage state — everything through calldata and events.
What's Included in Bot Development?
As part of the work, we provide:
- Research of MEV opportunities on Base with a report on volumes and competition.
- Integration with Aerodrome and other DEXes (by choice) supporting volatile and stable pools.
- Arbitrage engine with flash loan support (Aave V3).
- Price, gas price, and anomaly monitoring with alerts to Telegram/Discord.
- Documentation for bot deployment and management.
- Support for 1 month after launch.
Development Stack
Bot: TypeScript + viem (preferred over ethers.js for Base due to better EIP-1559 support). Bull (Redis-backed queue) for transaction queue management. Prometheus + Grafana for metrics.
Contracts: Solidity 0.8.24 + Foundry. Fork test on Base mainnet via forge test --fork-url https://mainnet.base.org. Foundry supports Base as a target network.
Bot deployment: Docker on AWS EC2 (us-east-1) or Fly.io for simplicity, with automatic restart via systemd/Supervisor.
Process
Research (2–3 days). Analysis of MEV opportunities on Base via Dune Analytics, assessing volumes and competition.
Development (1–2 weeks). Integration with Aerodrome and Uniswap V3, arbitrage engine, flash loan contract, monitoring.
Testing (3–5 days). Backtesting on historical Base data, paper trading in fork tests.
Launch. Deploy with small amounts → monitor performance → scale.
Risk Assessment for Arbitrage Strategies
| Risk | Probability | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Slippage higher than calculated | Medium | Split large orders, dynamic gas price |
| Flash loan fails | Low | Check pool liquidity before operation |
| Oracle price manipulation | Low | Price deviation alerts, stop at 2% |
| RPC node failure | Medium | Backup providers (Alchemy, Infura) |
Monitoring and Risk Management
Price deviation alerts: if price difference between DEXes exceeds 2% — potential anomaly (manipulation, oracle bug). Bot should halt until clarification.
Gas price tracking: on Base, gas is unstable under high load. Bot should check eth_gasPrice and set maxFeePerGas dynamically. Hard gas price limit — above threshold, arbitrage becomes unattractive.
Slippage on large positions: getAmountsOut for amount X doesn't account for price movement during execution. For large swaps, simulation with price impact is needed — either split into several smaller transactions.
Dead man's switch: if bot hasn't made transactions for more than N minutes despite opportunities — alert to Telegram/Discord. Possible causes: node down, insufficient gas balance, unexpected revert.
According to Dune Analytics, Aerodrome volume exceeds $1 billion per day.
Get expert consultation for your project — we will help you choose a strategy and implement the bot turnkey. Contact us to discuss the details.