Users of the Telegram-based cryptocurrency trading bot Banana Gun have fallen victim to a massive hack, losing roughly $1.9 million worth of digital assets.
The bot, which allows users to trade on popular blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana, and Base, has been targeted by at least 11 attackers, according to onchain security firm Cyvers.
Cyvers’ senior Security Operation Center lead, Hakan Unal, revealed that the attackers drained the wallets of hundreds of users, affecting at least 36 victims. “It appears that BananaGunBot wallets are being drained. Our system has detected around 11 attackers, and approximately $1.9 million has been stolen,” Unal told Cointelegraph.
The Banana Gun bot hack follows a series of similar incidents in the cryptocurrency space, including the $230 million hack of Indian exchange WazirX, marking it as one of the largest crypto thefts of 2024.
Nature of the attack remains unclear
Despite the scale of the attack, it does not appear to be linked to a wider vulnerability in the bot’s smart contract, according to Unal. “Per our investigation so far, it doesn’t seem like a contract exploit,” he stated. Instead, the hack may have only impacted a small number of user wallets, with the pseudonymous crypto sleuth Yannick Crypto suggesting that fewer than 40 victims were affected, out of a user base of more than 10,000 and an estimated $100 million in assets under management.
Designed to operate across Ethereum, Solana, and Layer 2 platforms like Base and Blast, Banana Gun claimed to provide “robust security measures” against MEV bot manipulations, which often exploit decentralized exchanges (DEXs) through front- and back-running tactics.
The bot also enables flexible trading options with features such as auto-sniping, limit orders, and manual swaps.
Banana Gun’s native ERC-20 token, BANANA, launched in 2023, encourages user engagement with governance and reward-sharing schemes. Currently listed as a USDT perpetual contract on Bybit, BANANA keeps a capped supply of 10 million tokens, of which 8.9 million are circulating.
