Our experts talk about the new trend in the crypto market and the associated risks of trading through Telegram bots

Trading bots in the Telegram messenger have quickly gained popularity among cryptocurrency traders. And those who prefer trading assets on decentralized exchanges (DEX). They are easier to use for quick and more precise trades. And skipping not the most user-friendly interface of blockchain-based trading platforms. However, the convenience of bots comes at the cost of trusting such bots with access to investors’ wallets.

Based on predetermined rules, having received a message, bots can recognize trading commands. And interpret them and then promptly execute trades on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. When first launched, the bot creates a wallet for the user. And providing him with access keys, after which funds need to be deposited into that wallet to start trading.

Bots also give a set of useful tools such as limit orders. And copy-trading (automatic copying of trades of given addresses) and so-called token sniping – tracking the appearance of new tokens on the Ethereum blockchain with automatic purchase. The bots have their own tokens, and rising prices are creating a speculative frenzy around them.

Unibot, launched in May this year, is considered the obvious leader in terms of the number of users and trading volumes

Its own token, UNIBOT, rose in value by more than 50% over the past week. And since its launch, it has increased in value almost 50 times. The demand for the token is supported by the fact that it must be held to pay trading commissions. However, 40% of these commissions are returned to users and are distributed proportionally to the number of tokens held by all owners.

The daily trading volume of the UNIBOT token at the time of publication exceeds $10.5 million, according to the aggregator CoinGecko. The site has a separate section for tokens of Telegram bots. And their list already numbers in the dozens – the developers are obviously trying to repeat the success of the pioneer and capitalize on the new market narrative.

Other popular bots include Swipe, WagieBot, Bolt and others. According to Dune Analytics, since May, more than 63,000 users have made transactions totaling about $193.7 million using bots, with Unibot accounting for the vast majority of the transactions. And more than $1 million in commission refunds have been distributed to bot token holders.

When making transactions on decentralized exchanges, users have to constantly log into their wallet. And check the correctness of information about tokens and face high commissions. At the same time, they still have full control over their own assets and do not need to entrust their wallet keys to a third party.

The appeal of trading bots is likely due to their ease of use compared to platforms. And which run on smart contracts. That said, users are forced to trust the wallets. And which are created inside the bots, with the condition that the bots have full access to them.

Safety and risks of Telegram bots

Despite the surge in popularity of trading bots. Security experts are critical of their approach to user assets.

In a comment to The Block, former Microsoft security chief Christian Seifert calls the emergence of trading bots in Telegram a “scary development.” And at the same time referring to their closed source code and the need to share wallet keys with them. In his opinion, this can be more dangerous than transferring funds to dubious crypto exchanges or to the addresses of unverified smart contracts. “In the second case, at least you can limit the level of access to funds. With bots, you are essentially just trusting them with your funds and hoping they won’t misappropriate them,” the expert cautions.

Yajin Zhou, co-founder of BlockSec, a blockchain security company. Similarly expressed similar concerns about the growing trend of bots on Telegram in a comment to reporters. He also talks about possible risks associated with the transfer of tokens to third-party wallets created by applications.

The high speed and ease of use of bots often comes at the cost of reduced security.

When such services automatically create a wallet for the user. There is a risk associated with permanently storing private keys inside the bot. If there is a data leak or a hack, it can turn into a disaster for bot users. After all, the bot developers themselves, often anonymous, can misappropriate user funds.

When a bot creates a wallet, it essentially creates a cryptographic key pair. The public key represents the address for incoming funds. The private key, gives access to those funds. This is what could potentially be the primary target of attackers. And who can easily withdraw assets from the wallet if it is compromised. On the other hand, if a user loses the private key without a backup, they will lose access to their assets.

Since private keys for wallets are not generated by users themselves. And their security is not always guaranteed, and this opens the door to abuse. He confidently says that in the future, unscrupulous bot developers will steal users’ funds.

Our experts note that if we draw parallels with past periods of excitement around memcoins or DeFi-tokens promising quick profits. Most of them turned out to be outright fraudulent projects. And that “countless investors” suffered.

Founder of Telegram announced plans to launch a decentralized platform for trading digital currencies. Our experts told us how successful this project could be. And whether its development will be hindered by regulators

The next step in development of Telegram is the creation of decentralized tools. Including cryptocurrencies, as well as decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, Pavel Durov said on November 30.

“This is how we can correct the mistakes caused by excessive centralization, which has failed hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users,” wrote the head of Telegram.

He explained that the blockchain industry was built on the principle of decentralization. But it turned out to be concentrated in the hands of a limited circle of individuals abusing their power.

“As a result, many people lost their money when one of major crypto exchanges FTX went bankrupt,” Durov recalled.

He said the solution to the problem is for blockchain projects to return to decentralization. And users should switch to transactions and wallets that do not depend on any third party.

The founder of Telegram said that he and four other people launched a decentralized domain name auction platform Fragment in five weeks. It is based on the blockchain platform TON, which Durov called fast and efficient enough to host popular apps. At the same time, Durov criticized Ethereum, calling it outdated and expensive, even after the latest global network upgrade.

“Fragment is amazingly successful. In less than a month the platform has sold $50 million worth of user names. This week Fragment will go beyond user names,” Durov said.

How will regulators treat Telegram cryptoexchange?

In terms of resources and the existing experience of Telegram team in developing TON project. Creation of such a project as a decentralized exchange and cryptocurrency wallets seems realistic, our experts believe. However, the current global trend in regulation of cryptoassets turnover is tightening and streamlining of control requirements.

Since details of this project and specifics of functioning of announced project are not disclosed. At the moment, it is difficult for our experts to assess how it will meet the requirements of the legislation of different countries.

What are the future prospects for this Telegram project?

Decentralized crypto exchanges are difficult to regulate because they are essentially not companies. Therefore, it is legally possible to prohibit such exchanges, but it is more difficult to limit their activities. Our expert stressed that liability in case of using such exchanges from the legal point of view does not apply to their creators. It extends more to ordinary users in each specific transaction.

Our experts admit the possibility that the launch of this site may be timed to the lifting of SEC ban. Which is imposed on Durov until July 2023 because of the attempted launch of the TON platform with the participation of investors from USA.

Most likely, the new DEX exchange will not be connected to Telegram in any way. Except for simplified authorization and a number of mechanics. Otherwise, they are definitely two different products.

What risks will ordinary users face when using a new DEX exchange from Telegram?

Most likely, DEX exchange will be created on TON blockchain. The main advantage of a decentralized platform is that it does not store users’ cryptocurrency. The exchange only brings together buyers and sellers of digital financial assets, without intermediaries. And users do not need to open an exchange account for such transactions – transactions are made from investors’ wallets.

That is, there is no risk of losing their funds if the exchange decides to block them. As, for example, happens now with the centralized exchanges, which go bankrupt.

The only risk of participation in transactions on the decentralized exchange is the risk of losses due to delays in price updates. And you will need to pay a commission for transactions on that DEX exchange.

In the first phase, Telegram auctioned off usernames reserved by messenger team. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

Web3-marketplace Fragment was launched. It sells the names of Telegram users. On the evening of October 26, the first auctions were opened on the blockchain platform. Names in the form of digital assets are sold using smart contracts.

Names reserved by a Telegram team are put up on this platform. These are names such as @chat, @bank, @cryptotrader and others. Auctions last one week from the first bid. So far, the maximum bid is for the name @casino – 52.5 thousand TON ($84 ths.), @bank with a bid of 63 thousand TON ($100.8 ths.) and @auto – 31.5 thousand TON ($51.3 ths.).

Minimum bid depends on length of user name. Initial cost of a four-letter username is 10,000 TON (about $16,000). The minimum price for names with more characters starts from 500 TON ($800).

Pavel Durov announced plans to launch Web3-marketplace in late August. Other elements of Telegram’s ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emoticons, could also be part of that market later, said Durov, founder of Telegram.