Measure Depositor-Level MEV Externalities Across Vault Operations

Develop reproducible measurement methods for depositor-level maximal extractable value externalities using counterfactual execution baselines that account for the diversity of harvest, rebalance, and bridge operations in decentralized finance vaults.

Background

The paper identifies harvests, rebalances, and bridge-mediated operations as execution pathways through which maximal extractable value can affect decentralized finance vault depositors. Because these operations differ substantially in timing, transaction structure, cross-chain dependencies, and exposure to adversarial ordering, their externalities cannot be readily compared using a single existing measurement procedure.

The authors specifically call for reproducible measurement with counterfactual execution baselines, which would enable researchers to estimate how depositor outcomes differ from outcomes under less extractable or otherwise controlled execution conditions. This would support more rigorous evaluation of MEV-aware vault design and operational risk.