Telegram Trading Bot Suffers Exploit as Hacker Ransacks $600k

Hackers have stolen funds from custodial services protocol on Telegram. The affected protocol is Unibot, a trading bot on Telegram that offers trading options for investors. As a result, the user accounts on Telegram are affected.

As per data projections issued by Scopescan, the on-chain research services provider reported the hack on the X trading platform. The report noted that the hackers exchanged the stolen cryptocurrencies with ETH tokens on decentralized exchanges.

As per the report, hackers have moved around $600,000 as a result of the exploit. Scopescan has directed the users to revoke all approvals for Unibot contract as per new directions issued by the firm. The service further directed the users to shift their funds to a new cryptocurrency wallet as soon as possible.

Beosin Alert informed that the exploit was the result of a Call injection that allowed the hackers to steal funds from the wallet without activating approvals for Unibot smart contracts. However, the official X account of Unibot did not share any update regarding the hack.

Unibot (UNIBOT) Token Price Plunges Following the Exploit

CoinGecko has reported that Unibot token crashed 29% within 24 hours of the attack. On this account, the total market cap of the project is around $45 million in comparison to $200 million last year in August.

Unibot hosted around 1300 active accounts during the last 3 months as per Dune Analytics. It is ranked as the second most popular trading bot on Telegram with 16% market share. During the recent weeks, trading bot popularity has increased.

However, investors have to face considerable security risks by granting the private key access to the trading bot. In another incident, hackers stole around $500K from Maestro, another Telegram trading bot with a 49% market share.

The affected users on the platform received a refund later. Glitch, a smart contract issued token for Banana Gun crashed by 98% within a day. The trading did not retain 75% market share and reissued the token later.

Trading Activities via Telegram Bots

An article published on the official website of NASDAQ in August this year pointed out the increasing trading activity using Telegram trading bots (TTBs). The article suggested that investors are able to use features such as trading on-chain, automated trades based on predefined strategy, automation, MEV, and front-running security.

The article maintained that bots allow investors to increase trading frequency using normal keyboards, mouse, and web-browser. Furthermore, anyone can use these trading bots without having in-depth knowledge of coding languages.

Meanwhile, there are also important features such as sniping that users can use to purchase new tokens that are listed on the decentralized exchange.

In this manner, traders can automate various aspect of trading and get an edge over their peers using the Telegram bots. At the same time, the article also cited the risks associated with the trading bots. When a user adds a bot to their trading account it means that the developers of the bot and the protocol are able to access it.

Since most of the trading bots in question are issued by anonymous developers, the traders using bots for investing may face security risks. However, more investors continue to utilize trading bots on account of features such as the ability to access various DEX platforms from a single message thread with easy UI navigation that is accessible with a basic mobile internet connection.