Does Bitcoin Use MEV to Order Your Transactions Like DeFi?

Why It Matters

These soft‑MEV dynamics shape transaction costs and user experience, especially as fee revenue stays low, prompting miners to rely on fee‑based incentives and side‑channel services that may raise fairness and transparency concerns.

Summary

Bitcoin exhibits a quiet form of MEV in which miners and pools decide transaction ordering using fee rates, ancestor‑child package feerates, BIP125 RBF replacements, and out‑of‑band payment lanes, even though there is no DeFi‑style front‑running. Bitcoin Core v28 made full replace‑by‑fee the default mempool policy and introduced limited 1‑parent‑1‑child package relay, enabling fee‑bumping, CPFP and direct‑to‑pool accelerators to move transactions ahead of earlier broadcasts. With average on‑chain fees around $0.68 and fee revenue representing less than 1% of block rewards, modest fee differentials can determine inclusion, and public template monitors now reveal deviations from a pure max‑feerate selection.