Telegram Bot Tokens Surge Toward $100M Market Cap

This morning, Telegram bot tokens reached a market cap of over $90 million, per CoinGecko data, doubling the sector's valuation in less than a fortnight.

Telegram bots for decentralized applications are automated programs that allow users to implement on-chain trading or farming strategies through tthe messaging app by linking wallets to the bots, or creating new Ethereum wallets within them.

Unibot stands out as the most popular Telegram bot in the niche. Unibot enables automated trading on the Uniswap decentralized exchange (DEX) with features such as snipping, which allows for instant token purchases after listing, and revenue sharing, making trading easier.

According to CoinGecko data, the platform's native token, UNIBOT, has surged by over 400% in the last 30 days. It currently commands a dominant share of over 87% of the total market cap of Telegram bot tokens.

Easier trading—and security risks

Bobby Ong, the co-founder and COO of CoinGecko, tweeted about the surge in new Telegram bots with built-in wallets entering the market, noting that they make "degen trades / airdrop farming easier."

However, using these bots involves a degree of risk. Users have to transfer tokens to a third-party wallet or share their private keys to link existing wallets, which exposes their funds to potential exploits or rug pulls.

Ong added that he won’t be surprised “if one of the bots ended up sniffing / storing the private keys of its users and rugging all its users.”

Despite the potential risks, Ong continues to use the bot for “small play money,” adding that, “I just find it really convenient using the bot to degen trade.”

According to data from the pseudonymous data analyst whale_hunter's Dune dashboard, the cumulative trading volumes handled by Telegram bots have reached an impressive $77 million since May 2023, with Unibot alone accounting for $57.2 million of the total.

On July 19, the trading bots registered a peak trading volume of $5.7 million, with Unibot, Banana Gun, and Ready Swap being the most popular choices among users.