Risks of Telegram Bots Highlighted by Banana Gun Bot Incident

Cryptocurrency trading has always been a dynamic and thrilling arena, but it's become even more exhilarating with the emergence of Telegram trading bots. These digital assistants have transformed the crypto space, offering traders an array of features designed to simplify and enhance their trading experience.

The Telegram Trading Bot Revolution

Telegram trading bots have emerged as the secret weapons for traders, offering unprecedented accessibility, convenience and automation.

These trading bots are automated systems that facilitate cryptocurrency trading. They connect to decentralized exchanges and execute trades based on predefined rules. These bots serve various purposes, from executing trades on behalf of users to implementing complex trading strategies and risk management techniques.

The number of users adopting Telegram trading bots is growing. Source: Dune Analytics

The impact of these bots has been nothing short of revolutionary. They've made cryptocurrency trading accessible to a broader audience and eliminated the need for constant manual monitoring.

Unlocking Their Power

The top Telegram trading bots support a wide range of wallets and liquidity management options to enable seamless fund management. Rapid order execution tools like sniping help traders seize fleeting profit opportunities. With robust functionality that enhances every aspect of trading, Telegram bots are becoming essential arsenals that empower cryptocurrency traders to succeed in a complex and fast-paced investment arena.

Some of the top trading bots, including UniBot, can execute trades up to six times faster than manual trading on Uniswap's website, saving users the time needed to connect wallets and approve each transaction.

By streamlining the trading process, UniBot allows users to instantly buy and sell tokens on Uniswap v2.0 and v3.0 on Ethereum by simply sending the contract address via chat. In return, UniBot charges a 1% fee on each successful trade. With its speed and convenience, it's easy to see why UniBot is a popular choice among decentralized exchange traders.

The Banana Gun Bot Incident

Banana Gun is a Telegram bot that plans to make crypto trading easy, whether getting in early on an upcoming token launch or safely purchasing coins that are already trading. This bot serves as a sniping and manual buying assistant on the Ethereum blockchain and potentially other networks in the future.

The much-anticipated launch of the Banana Gun token took a nightmarish turn at launch, with the newly minted BANANA token plunging over 99% just hours after its release due to a critical bug in its contract code.

The token, native to the popular Banana Gun Telegram trading bot, opened trading at around $8.70 before cascading to a jaw-dropping low of $0.02 within 3 hours. Understandably, many angry investors cried foul, accusing Banana Gun of a rug pull.

Banana Gun's slippery-quick rise and fall at launch. Source: Dexscreener

However, the project's team quickly denied these allegations, instead attributing the shocking crash to a flaw in BANANA's contract. According to their statement, the bug somehow slipped through two independent audits.

ChatGPT Audit

But while Banana Gun's auditors seemingly dropped the ball, the AI chatbot ChatGPT impressed many by allegedly catching the coding vulnerability in mere seconds. MisterChoc, a pseudonymous developer, claims he simply prompted ChatGPT to review BANANA's contract, allowing it to rapidly pinpoint the exploit.

The launch of ChatGPT has sparked discussion within the crypto community about the over dependence of AI. While ChatGPT's natural language proficiency is impressive, experts caution that core code reviews and audits still require human discernment.

Moving forward, the crypto industry has an opportunity to integrate AI in ways that augment human capabilities and strengthen overall system security.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the fiasco, Banana Gun laid out plans to get BANANA back on track. The team sold off their treasury wallet to drain liquidity from the flawed BANANA contract. The funds recovered established a new, clean BANANA contract.

This relaunched token airdropped to early affected users to make them whole. To avoid repeating their previous mistakes, Banana Gun promised rigorous audits of the new code. And the token has recovered, trading in the $9 range as of September 26.

Banana Gun's price since its re-launch. Source: CoinGecko

The BANANA launch disaster comes at a time when Telegram-based trading bots are seeing immense popularity for their convenience and ubiquity. Banana Gun emerged as a top player in this hot bot-powered trading sector, alongside veterans like Unibot. While bots surely are convenient, the BANANA episode highlights the need for rigorous diligence when relying on novel trading tools and platforms.