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

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.

🚨 SECURITY ALERT 🚨

We've received reports of wallet drains affecting @BananaGunBot users.

If you suspect your funds may be at risk:

– Sweep your assets into a fresh wallet
– Lockdown your assets with our free tool at https://t.co/Vr7qwpksc2

We'll keep updates streaming in

— FailSafe Protocol (@protectmywallet) September 19, 2024

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.

Seems like there is already 36 victims with almost 563 #ETH stolen "so far" on mainnet. The last one was drained an hour ago, but there is more rumour that drains started on #SOL too.

I wouldnt say that @BananaGunBot itself got hacked, not enough victims. pic.twitter.com/0Ktz3TCcyu

— yannickcrypto.eth (@YannickCrypto) September 19, 2024

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.

A hacker attacked @TeamUnibot and is stealing the assets of users.

As of now, the stolen assets have exceeded $600K.

If you use #Unibot, please move your funds to other wallets or revoke approvals of the contract as soon as possible.

0x126c9FbaB3A2FCA24eDfd17322E71a5e36E91865 pic.twitter.com/ioObZ3WAyR

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 31, 2023

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.