Telegram Bot Banana Gun Users Lose 500 ETH to Hack – What’s Going On?

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Jimmy Aki

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Jimmy Aki

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Jimmy has nearly 10 years of experience as a journalist and writer in the blockchain industry. He has worked with well-known publications such as Bitcoin Magazine, CCN, and Blockonomi, covering news...

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September 19, 2024 13:54 EDT

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Banana Gun, a Telegram-based trading bot, was compromised on September 19, leading to major losses for its users.

Reports indicate that wallets linked to Banana Gun were drained of over 500 ETH, amounting to $1.9 million in total losses.

Details of the Banana Gun Hack

Various community members first reported the breach, and the on-chain security protocol Failsafe confirmed the incident through an X post.

The victims, at least 11 users, have collectively lost $1.9 million worth of cryptocurrency.

Although the number of victims is relatively small, some users on X (formerly Twitter) have raised doubts about whether the Banana Gun bot was directly hacked.

The team has acknowledged the issue, stating, “We are investigating the issue; the bot is currently offline,” in a pinned message on their Telegram channel.

This is not the first time Banana Gun has faced challenges. In September last year, the project experienced a botched launch of its revenue-sharing Banana token due to a bug in the smart contract.

Notably, Banana Gun is one of the leading Telegram-based trading bots, with its Dune Analytics dashboard showing over $6 billion in trading volume facilitated for nearly 272,000 users.

Despite its popularity, the recent security breach has sparked debates about the safety of using automated trading tools in the crypto industry.

Comparison to Other Telegram Trading Bot Hacks

Banana Gun is not alone in facing security breaches. In October 2023, another Telegram-based trading bot, Unibot, was hacked, resulting in users losing over $600,000.

On-chain analytics account Lookonchain reported that the Unibot hack stemmed from a “Call Injection” exploit, in which attackers used malicious call data to transfer tokens approved for Unibot contracts.

Similarly, the Solana-based Telegram bot Solareum shut down earlier this year following insufficient funding and a security breach that stole over 2,800 SOL from more than 300 users, amounting to $520,000 in losses.

These incidents highlight an alarming trend in the increasing vulnerability of trading bots to security threats.

The Banana Gun hack is another addition to the growing list of breaches within the automated trading ecosystem.