Original author: Grapefruit
Recently, information about Unibot, such as "Catching costs of $665,000, UNIBOT tokens increase by about 50 times in two months," has been circulating in major cryptocurrency communities.
According to DeFiLlama data, on July 24th, Unibot captured profits totaling $665,000 within 24 hours, while during the same period, Uniswap's profits were $983,000.
Coingecko shows that its UNIBOT token has risen from $3 on May 22nd to a peak of $148, an increase of about 50 times, and is currently priced at $138.
Unibot's outstanding performance has sparked a speculation frenzy in the cryptocurrency industry for trading bot projects. Within a short period of time, many trading robot projects have emerged on platforms like Telegram and Discord. The token's value has increased several times, with the Loot Bot token LOOT, a robot that helps users claim airdrops, experiencing a daily increase of up to 4 times.
Regarding the sudden surge in the trading bot project sector, some people are enthusiastic while others remain cautious.
Enthusiasts believe that Unibot allows users to complete on-chain token trades on social software platforms like Telegram, greatly simplifying the barriers for users to engage in on-chain activities. However, those who maintain a neutral view believe that Unibot-like projects can be easily replicated, and there will be a mix of good and bad bot projects in a short period of time, with no guarantees of security.
How long will this Unibot narrative last? Will Unibot be like memecoins, rising and falling quickly, leaving only a mess behind once the hype dies down?
In addition, data shows that more than 80% of Unibot's captured fees actually come from the transaction taxes of its native UNIBOT token (users need to pay a 5% transaction tax for each UNIBOT token transaction), and less than 20% of the revenue comes from the claimed transaction fees. The trading pairs completed by Unibot trading bots mostly involve memecoins. In the Unibot trading competition held in July, more than 65% of the over 1,000 participating on-chain addresses were in a loss-making state.
UNIBOT Token Soars, Revenue Surges, Igniting Telegram Bot Speculation
According to data from Dune@whale_hunter, Unibot has captured a total of 3280 ETH in revenue since its launch in May, worth $6.08 million, with a total trading volume of $85.76 million. Meanwhile, its token UNIBOT has risen from $3 in May to a peak of $148 on July 24, an increase of about 50 times.
The total supply of UNIBOT tokens is 1 million, currently priced at $109, with a market capitalization of $130 million.
As a new application, Unibot has generated over $6 million in revenue in just two months, with the UNIBOT token increasing about 10 times. The rapid surge in revenue and token price has attracted attention to the Telegram Bot sector and sparked a wave of speculation.
Last week, exchanges such as Huobi and Bitget listed the UNIBOT token, and crypto data platforms like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap also listed Telegram Bot tokens.
Bobby Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko, has repeatedly tweeted about Telegram Bot-related content, stating that the biggest pain point for new users entering the crypto industry is the difficulty in using wallets and DeFi protocols. After experiencing Unibot, users have a better understanding of how the next wave of billions of new users will interact with cryptocurrencies. Unibot's idea is simple - to build a fast and easy wallet on Telegram and integrate closely with DEXes, making DeFi trading much easier on mobile devices.
In another tweet, he mentioned that Telegram Bot tokens, represented by Unibot, will become the next crypto hotspot in the next 1-2 months and asked users if they agree.
What exactly is Unibot? What are its features?
Unibot is a trading tool bot built within Telegram. Users can interact with the bot through conversations on Telegram to execute on-chain token trading activities on Uniswap, such as token swapping, copy trading, limit orders, and privacy trading. In addition, Unibot provides real-time alerts for new Ethereum tokens, allowing users to easily add tokens and make sniper trades. Unibot charges a transaction fee ranging from 0.5% to 1.5% for each transaction.
In this case, Unibot provides convenience for users to complete token exchanges on the blockchain without leaving the Telegram social software, eliminating the need to switch between social and DeFi applications and reducing the user threshold. In addition, Telegram, as a well-known social application, is expected to have 300 million new users globally by the end of this year, which will bring more users into the crypto world.
The emergence of Unibot has made Telegram Bots a separate crypto sector. So what are some representative projects in the Telegram Bot sector?
According to CoinGecko, as of July 26th, the total market value of the Telegram Bot sector is 161 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of 22.65 million US dollars.
Representative projects:
LootBot - a bot on Telegram that helps users complete automated airdrop interactions, aimed at automating airdrop harvesting. It enables automated interactions for airdrops on multiple EVM compatible chains, tracking airdrop collection progress, and preventing front-running attacks, among other features.
Bolt Bot - a Telegram trading bot that classifies users into different subscription levels based on their holdings of BOLT tokens. Different levels offer different functions (high-level support for whale watching, pre-sale purchases, etc.) and have different transaction fees.
SwipeBot - a Telegram trading bot for ETH, ARB, and BSC chains. Users need to hold 500 SWIPE tokens to access SwipeBot. If the amount held is less than 500 SWIPE, a 0.5% transaction fee will be charged. It is opened once every two weeks to non-holders.
MEVFree - a Telegram trading bot that prevents MEV attacks, helping users to prevent sandwich attacks during the transaction process.
0x Sniper - a DeFi trading bot that aims to be more than just a regular trading tool. It aims to satisfy the needs of experienced and novice traders and provides a navigation platform.
80% of Unibot's revenue comes from token transaction taxes and security concerns remain
Telegram Bot provides users with a simple and friendly way to trade cryptocurrencies. Currently, both in terms of user experience, token trends, and captured revenue, Unibot appears to be a successful product. However, 80% of the revenue captured by Unibot comes from the trading tax of its native token UNIBOT, and the majority of the trades completed on the platform are memecoins, both of which are unsustainable in terms of token trading tax and memecoin popularity. So, will Unibot's narrative be short-lived, just like memecoins?
According to Dune data, out of the current 3280 ETH revenue captured by Unibot, 2843 ETH comes from UNIBOT token trading tax, and the revenue generated from the bot trading business is only 437.2 ETH (around $810,000). This means that over 80% of Unibot's revenue comes from UNIBOT token trading tax, with less than 20% coming from the main bot trading business.
Currently, Unibot generates revenue mainly through two methods: bot trading fees and the trading tax of its native token UNIBOT. The former involves Unibot charging a 1% fee on each transaction, with 40% of it being distributed to token holders; the latter refers to a 5% tax applied to all UNIBOT token transactions, with 1% of the trading volume being allocated to token holders, provided that the token holding balance is greater than 50 UNIBOT for eligibility to receive income sharing rewards.
In simple terms, if a user holds more than 50 UNIBOT tokens, they can receive a 40% share of the transaction fees and a 1% share of the UNIBOT trading volume tax.
Transaction tax mechanisms are common in meme tokens, such as the AIDOGE token on Arbitrum, which has a 15% transaction burn tax mechanism, similar to the royalty mechanism of NFTs. This mechanism is often considered as a reward for long-term holders to reduce token dumping. However, it also means that users incur losses upon buying in. Taking the 5% UNIBOT trading tax as an example, users already incur a 10% loss upon buying, as they need to pay 5% when buying and another 5% when selling. Therefore, the sustainability of tokens relying on revenue distribution from trading taxes is unknown, as even the mainstream cryptocurrency projects currently do not involve any transaction taxes, and even the competition for NFT royalties is trending towards zero.
Furthermore, most of the trading volume completed by Unibot relies on its own token UNIBOT-WETH. The token with the most trading pairs is memecpin, with HAMS, the token for the online hamster racing game, ranking third, followed by the ape-themed coin JIM. If memecoin loses popularity, how will Unibot maintain its trading volume?
In the trading competition held by Unibot in July, about 1,402 users participated, but over 65.2% of the trading addresses were actually in a loss state.
In fact, Unibot's trading volume has significantly decreased, with only $1.1 million in trading volume on July 26th, and the captured fees amounted to $22,000.
In addition to the sustainability issues of the business, Unibot's security has also been continuously questioned by users. This is because during the use of Unibot, the robot generates new wallet addresses, and users need to deposit corresponding assets to execute purchases. However, the private keys of these three wallets can be accessed on the Telegram page. If a Telegram account is hacked, the assets in the addresses will also be at risk of being stolen. Additionally, users face the risk of leakage when importing their wallet private keys during the Telegram process, and there is also the possibility of making mistakes when entering token addresses for purchases.
Regarding security, CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong has said, "I wouldn't be surprised if robots store their users' private keys and deceive them by transferring assets to their own wallets."
Therefore, when using Unibot or other robots, users need to be aware of the risks and preferably deposit only small amounts of funds and use new wallets.
