Farming Alpha #0003:The Rise and Rise of Telegram Bots

Farming Alpha

1 year ago

Telegram and other Bots: New Meta

This edition of Farming Alpha is Sponsored by QuantCheck Labs, a research institution that designs proprietary trading models to give cryptocurrency traders an edge! Discover how you can get ahead of the bulk of traders here!

GM/GE/GN to my indefatigable crypto savants! Let’s talk about bots. No, not the scammy, spam bots you see in every other twitter (‘X’) notification. I am talking about the tidal wave of Telegram bots that have taken the world of dApps (the ‘d’ is really out of place here) by storm.

2 of the top 12 largest protocols by fees on chain are Maestro and Unibot, 2 TG bots, used primarily to snipe DEX contracts and copy trade DEX traders. Since these apps exploded to prominence, a subsequent surge of TG bots have hit the market, with new ones popping up every day. TG bots, along with categories like RWA, LSDFi and Perp DEX’s have been one of the best performing segments in Crypto in 2023.

In this piece, I provide a birds eye view on the current landscape. I also talk about my principal concerns with the current architecture of TG bots. Finally, I make predictions on the winners, losers and future winners of the TG bots landscape.

This is one of the longer pieces, so if you are short on time, here is a shortlist of every protocol mentioned, with their ticker (if they have a token)

Maestro
Unibot- $UNIBOT
Banana gun
PAAL AI – $PAAL
MEV FREE – $MEVFREE
PVP- $PVP
Alpha Scanner – $ASCN
tehbag- $BAG
Lootbot- $LOOT
Blacksmith- $BS
ChainGPT- $CGPT
Newsly- $NEWS
0xfriend- $0xF
Aimbot- $AIM

Let’s get into it!

Make sure to follow me on twitter for more on-chain ALPHA.

Evolution of TG bots

Crossing the chasm from Verification > Intelligence > Execution

The meta for TG bots has been “Buy Alerts” and “Verify”. If you were launching a meme coin, these buy alerts provided every single member of the community with a live update each time someone bought the token. Furthermore, if there were larger buys, these were “Whale alerts” serving as a bull signal for these tokens. The more alerts you saw in a group, the more you were tempted to buy the token, fuelling the “Pumpamentals” of a shitcoin.

“Verify” bots are used by almost all TG groups to prove that you are human, before joining a community. Beyond this functionality, TG was primarily used to create alerts with links. Tools like ‘WhaleAlerts’ alert you to any large transaction on chain with the link to Etherscan, allowing you to stay in tune with the tide of big money.

Most of these bots were not fee generating in any way, until Maestro and Unibot came along. If my memory serves me correctly, Maestro was the first to hit the market. Maestro made it possible for you to easily buy and sell DEX tokens, all within TG. Unibot followed this up swiftly, with the additional functionality of a token used to distribute rewards to holders.

What these bots do well

In my opinion, there are 2 reasons why these apps have done incredibly well. Reduced effort and increased reward.

1) Superior UX

If you have ever used Uniswap to buy and sell tokens, I think it is fair to say that it is a nightmare.
If you are trying to quickly enter and exit positions, you have to sign and approve a transaction at least twice, making the whole process cumbersome.
If you set slippage too high, you become susceptible to sandwich attacks, which results in failed tx and losses.
TG bots, since they are custodial wallets, do not require multiple signatures. All you need to do is add funds to the wallet and paste the wallet addresses.

2) Greater Potential for Profit

The way it is set up, you can set up multiple burner wallets that can simultaneously buy and sell tokens.
You can execute complex strategies, set take profit levels for the same token on different wallets and different levels and more.
All of this happens at lightning speed, which makes it easy to access.
When you look at the vast majority of DEX tokens, the speed with which you enter and exit is key to making money.
It has been made abundantly evident that EoA wallets do not fit the bill. Most of the global trading volume still takes place primarily on Centralized exchanges like Binance, Bybit and OKX.
TG bots use DEX for order execution, but in many ways, mimic the ease of trade execution of CEXs

What these Bots do Poorly

🚨🚨 SECURITY 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

The bots have excelled in providing speed of execution, similar to those of CEX and in some cases, even better.
However, most CEX are HEAVILY regulated. It at least appears that there can be recourse if a CEX rugs.
If a TG bot rugs, what recourse do you think you have?
If you are wondering why the experience of TG bots is so much better, it is because they have your pvt keys.
Once they have pvt keys, they can do all the boring signing stuff which you and I hate doing on Uniswap.
While most of them claim to have some funky sharding mechanism/encrypt-decrypt flow, that is fundamentally untrue.
It is not possible for any of the DEX sniper bots, who all use burner EoA wallets, to execute transaction en masse, without your keys.
Lest we forget

“Not your Keys, Not your Crypto”.

The Current Landscape

As Maestro and Unibot rack up millions in fees, more and more players enter the market with the hope of creating new categories within TG bots. Upon my most recent investigation, we have seen the following categories emerge.

Snipers (The OG Bluechips)
Copy trading
Airdrop farming
On-chain tx scanners
Pooled capital bots
AI/LLM based token deployers/auditors
On-chain intelligence bots (powered by AI)

(Full disclosure, I created an airdrop farming bot as well. I did this primarily to automate the grind of farming for my own personal use. I will not be opening it to the public)

I mention the ones that I found to be most compelling in this exclusive, not at all exhaustive list!

Blue-Chips

There are 3 bluechip TG DEX trading bots.

Maestro- the first
Unibot- the first with a token
Banana Gun- distant 3rd, but still raking in fees!

1) Maestro (BULLISH 🚀🚀🚀)

The original monster in the TG bot space, Maestro first became available to niche communities in July 2022. Take a look at the image below to see how they have fared in a little over a year! The OG Sniper bot has printed money and created an entirely new asset class all together.

In addition to the Sniper bot, there are also Maestro

Buy bots: Set up a buy bot for whenever someone buys a token
Whale Wallet: Choose the whales you wish to track and get alerts on the fly in TG
Wallet Tracker: Which allows you to track all of your wallets, regardless of chain, in one place!
Maestro pro also includes a trading terminal web app (like UNIBOT X).
Maestro has lost significant share to $UNIBOT. Expect some bold moves to defend their supremacy!

2) UNIBOT (BULLISH 🚀🚀)

Unibot launched a whole year later, but has effectively emerged as the heir apparent in the TG bot space.

Unibot= Maestro + Revenue Sharing token

Launching your own token is not easy business. I for one, would not opt to launch a token until at least 1-2 months post launch traction. However, my intuition tells me that the $UNIBOT team spent months watching Maestro before launching Unibot, and has been able to capture significant market share from them!

What’s more, by having their own token, they not only earned money from the fees that came with buying and selling the $UNIBOT token, but also captured and distributed the value back to holders, creating a powerful loop of buy pressure and fees!
With the recent launch of UNIBOT X, a fully integrated trading terminal, with charts and indicators powered by trading view, all in one place, just like Maestro, Unibot is poised to bring in even more users!
40% of all bot fees is distributed back to holders (a whopping 2500+ ETH!!)
You can learn more about how this works here

3) Banana Gun Bot (BULLISH 🚀)

I will not go into too much, but the stats below should tell you that it pays handsomely to be in this sport. Even third place is likely to end the year with in excess of 600ETH in fees. With their current user base of DAU of 600 users, that is staggering!

Banana gun has also used SBTs to credential their users, with holders of all 3 issued SBTs entitled to rewards.

Ones to Look out For

So far, the bot landscape has seen other winners outside of $UNIBOT and Maestro. Let us dive into those winners.

1) PAAL AI (BULLISH 🚀)

Upon initial research, I view PAAL as one of the highest upside tokens. PAAL is your Personalized AI assistant. You can use /paal in the tg chat to summarise information across crypto.
I believe it is a GPT4 wrapper that has trained on crypto specific data sets. It is also connected to the internet so it is able to access current information.
When i ask /PAAL about Eigenlayer, it is quick to generate information for me that is a quick summary.
This tool only scratches the surface of PAAL’s potential though. Here is what I am most excited by!

A) Whitelabeled AI Bot as a Service

PAAL allows other projects to custom design their own AI bots which they can deploy to TG/Discord.
You can even import your own data sets to create a bot designed for your projects specific context.
This is a current revenue stream for them, off chain.

B) Autopaal X

This is perhaps the most exciting TG tool on the market.
With Autopaal X, you can ask PAAL complex queries and make them into executable trading strategies.
Here is the reveal!

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-3&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1693691250082230387&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Ffarming-alpha.beehiiv.com%2Fp%2Ffarming-alpha-0003&sessionId=df8b17d3101ae43e7b975df390c3ab7cb1392877&theme=light&widgetsVersion=aaf4084522e3a%3A1674595607486&width=550px

C) Excellent Revenue Figures

Here is a link to a comprehensive dune dashboard for all things PAAL. I will highlight key numbers below.
They have a 4% tax on every buy and sell, which has yielded significant revenue for the PAAL token.
Revenue from Taxes: 562.13 ETH
Off-chain Revenue: 112.01 ETH
Total Lifetime Revenue= 674.14 ETH
FDV= $32m
CMC= $20m
Total Users= 7344
Total Holders= 4500
Feel free to track their wallets, inflows and outlfows here

With the launch of AutopaalX, these numbers will rise significantly, as people would start to use it to trade. Similiar to $UNIBOT and Maestro, AutoPaalX will start to earn 1% of all trading volume through its platform. I will be monitoring this token very closely.

2) Alpha Scanner

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= BEARISH 🔻)

Alpha scanner is using a unique, proprietary sentiment analysis model that is able to capture all the mentions of a token across crypto twitter.
Their mission is to allow users to be able to trade the social signals, notice narratives before they play out and be early to calls from influential folks.
At present, their TG bot is in its v1 beta. The image below captures the capability of Alpha scanner.

You can also use Alpha scanner to summarise which tokens your favourite influencer is bullish on and track their performance! (See Below)

The token performance has been lacklustre, also partially due to the fact that it is on Arbitrum.

24h volume is $38k
Mcap= $1.2m (launched at $2.8m)

While I am bullish on the intelligence tool, the token will need to capture revenue from the TG trading bot, which is yet to launch to the public. Keep your eyes on Alphascan, though!

3) MEV Free (BULLISH 🚀)

Naturally, the MEV free team has the attention of many, capable of now commanding significant advertising dollars.
However, after aggregating an audience across these tools, MEVFree has now entered the DEX game, with Tradeshield, powered by MEVSwap
As an interesting distinguishing factor to Uniswap, MEVSwap holds user funds in the smart contract and thus takes a custodial approach.
This protects users from Front running and the harmful effects of MEV.
They have also launched their launchpad, which draws the attention of their 300,000 or so unique users to new tokens willing to launch on MEVSwap.
Finally, on August 26, they will be launching their TG bot called MEVFree Onebot, which should capture decent revenue, given their extensive distribution.
CMC= $20m
FDV= $33m
Rewards accumulated and ready for distribution for holders in 3 weeks= 100ETH
Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how much volume of trading they can capture, but the advertising revenue is an excellent hedge!

4) PVP

(Service= Meh 😐) (Token= BEARISH 🔻)

A degen gambling TG bot, that can only explain what the future of TG bots are. If you think meme coins is like gambling, try this one out for size.

$PVP has 3 games atm- boxing, biscuit and slots.
Connect your wallet, make sure to have a certain amount of $PVP and play away.
The boxing game literally is a PVP game where you choose 1/3 punches. First to land 3 wins
The accuracy of the punches are randomised by game operator.
These heads up games are quite literally mad, but the traction has been phenomenal!
$554,136 in total volume, $112,005 in Revenue, with more than 2100 games played in 5 days. Staggering!
MCAP= $2.59m .
This has enough degen legs to pump, coupled with a 6% buy and sell tax on the token. (NFA, DYOR)
I am not sure if this one lasts, but ape responsibly!
I do believe, firmly, that a large crypto casino like $RLB will soon be entering the TG bot space, which could potentially take the volume away. I will look at gamblefi in next weeks piece!

5) teh $BAG (BULLISH 🚀)

An autonomous, decentralised live mentions and raiding bot, that analyses and catalyses community attention. $BAG has the following key features

Real time alerts for tweets/mentions on TG of your project. Think Buybot, but for social interactions!
Raid to Trend: The new trending feature is leveraging the power of AI and twitter comments to increase every DEFI project chances to trend on twitter!
Using BagBot’s sophisticated algorithm, BagBot automatically detects the number of Hashtags projects should have to trend at certain categories in certain countries.
Moreover, Bagbot creates the missions at the best possible time-of-day, to maximizing your chances of achieving the holy grail — getting your project trending on Twitter
You can set up campaigns where if the community hits certain targets of engagements, the smart contract will automatically buyback a certain amount of the token!
Furthermore, if you wish to advertise to communities that are using teh bot, its all possible via Tg
MC= $13.12m

6) Lootbot ($LOOT)

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= BEARISH 🔻)

Airdrop farming bots are very risky businesses to scale, in my honest opinion. Protocols likely love them, because they have been contributing copious amounts of volume and “wallets” to them. It will be interesting to see how these protocols approach airdrops. We have seen people make small fortunes because of airdrops. Will these sybil bots reduce the average bag people get? Or will protocols penalise bot users by giving them a drastically smaller bag? I am definitely bearish on the protocol. There is no meaningful continuum to airdrop farming.

While these questions will only be answered post Lzero airdrop, keep an eye on the top protocol in the airdrop bot space- $LOOTbot

Extensive coverage – Lzero, ZKsync, Linea, friend.tech, Starknet, Eigenlayer and more
Top up “farming wallets”. You can farm as many wallets and ecosystems as you want for free or for $30 per wallet per month.
The free plan means you lose 20% of your airdrop!
It remains to be seen what the pay out looks like. If these bots succeed in enabling airdrops, they will likely make millions in commissions!
Lootbot also has an interesting staking mechanism that allows you to stake loot and receiver xLoot NFTs.
$xLOOT is transferrable, although not convertible back into $LOOT. Burning $LOOT is a one-way ticket.
$xLOOT holders, apart from higher revenue sharing %, also receives special privileges such as higher portions of Airdropped tokens from Freemium commissions & private lounge chat.
CMC= $2.88m
FDV= $4.1m

7) Blacksmith ($BS)

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= Cautious 👀)

Blacksmith is another AI powered TG sniper bot, that alerts you when new launches come out and protects you from rugs.
Their token, the $BS token, at present, is used to token gate their AI platform, Mjonir, which is in beta.
The only way you can access their platform is by either having a forge NFT (only 50 will ever exist) or by smelting (burning) your tokens to create a forge NFT.

Better than the rest

While this platform will provide incremental upgrades to the others mentioned in this list, it shines because of 1 reason in particular- SECURITY!
Blacksmith has been late to the market because they are attempting a different wallet implementation using account abstraction.
This would make Blacksmith the only TG bot which is trust minimised. I have a feeling that they will manage to capture a captive audience that these TG bots have not managed to capture, who will have the confidence to capture much larger volumes!
FYI- our submission at Superhack was a TG bot to buy NFTs that uses AA, so I am really PRO this security measure.

Worse than the Rest

I am not, however, pro the team holding on to 60% of the token supply linearly vesting over 3 years…..
It creates misaligned incentives for the token, and hence I will not be a long term believer!
CMC= $2.13M
FDV= $12.17m
Number of Holders= 540

8) Newsly ($NEWS)

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= Watching Closely 👀)

Newsly is a Telegram bot that allows you to view news, as well as execute trades, instantly through 1 click.
When trading news, every second counts. Newsly can help give you that edge to act and enter trades instantly, no matter where you are. It is designed to be a complementary tool to your existing trading setup so that you are plugged in with the tools you need, 24×7.
The bot connects to your CEX (Bybit) account through API and is able to execute trades through your commands on Telegram. Trades are all executed on your own account.
Your funds are as safe as all funds on Bybit. No additional trust assumptions made 💪🏽.

Total holders= 966
MCAP= $3.77m

9) ChainGPT ($CGPT)

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= BEARISH 🔻)

AI-Solidity Smart Contracts Generator & Auditor: Users can generate contracts by describing their desired features and quickly audit existing contracts by pasting the code into ChainGPT. In addition, the system stays up-to-date with the latest guidelines, Solidity pragma versions, and security vulnerabilities.
Dev Assist: Dev Assist is an open-source browser extension that provides users with a comprehensive understanding of smart-contract interactions. The tool visually represents the code and its workings, making it easier for developers and non-developers alike to understand how the contracts work
AI-Generated NFTs: AI-Generated NFTs are non-fungible tokens created based on user prompts using AI-powered algorithms. These NFTs are unique and can be used for various applications such as digital art, in-game items, and digital collectibles. Within 30-60 seconds, anyone can deploy their NFTs on the Blockchain. (seems hardly usable)

AI Trading Assistant: Explicitly designed for Crypto traders looking to improve their Technical Analysis experience. Easily apply TA parameters and strategies, ask ChainGPT to detect chart patterns, and analyze historical data with the help of our AI.
$CGPT burn mechanism automatically burns half of each fee or profit the ChainGPT tools & utilities make. Thus reducing the overall supply of $CGPT. For example, when a user pays 5 $CGPT for each request of ChainGPT AI, half of that is burnt out of the supply.
Ask Crypto People: Another free to use product that allows you to ask AI versions of your favourite KOLs anything.
The team seems to have over indexed on AI for the sake of AI.
The token finds itself 80% below its ATH, currently at
MCAP= $7m
FDV= $56m
Most trading is on CEX like Gate and Kucoin

10) AIMBOT ($AIM)

(Service= BULLISH 🚀) (Token= Watching Closely 👀)

One of the more interesting implementations of the TG bot mania.
All you do is buy their token and they then trade using their algorithm.
Thereafter, you claim rewards from the profit pool, which is proportional to how many of their tokens you have.
It is like being in a mutual fund or ETF.