Original article by GABE TRAMBLE
Original translation: TechFlow
Editor's note: According to the official announcement, Binance announced the launch of the first phase of the HODLer airdrop project Banana Gun (BANANA). What is Banana Gun? What is the unique competitiveness of their product? Why can it win the favor of "Degen" traders? The following is a detailed introduction to the operating model and core functions of Banana Gun.
This article was first published in September 2023.
Follow suit is a good summary of the speculative atmosphere in the crypto space, where traders are driven by daily 100x gains, Rugs, and liquidity extraction. In this space, meme coins have a unique appeal, especially as traders follow the market and the promoters who promote these tokens on Twitter. Platforms like Banana Gun have emerged to provide users with the basic tools needed for high-speed trading.
A few years ago, Maestro was ahead of the game, initially gaining traction under its original name Catchy. Maestro was the go-to platform for traders looking to profit from short-term market fluctuations. Then along came Unibot, which improved the space by focusing less on sniping and more on regular users who were frustrated by Uniswap’s not-so-user-friendly interface. They strategically focused on referral fees to drive rapid growth, a strategy similar to what we’ve seen on platforms like Rollbit and Stake.
Recently, Banana entered the space, offering a product that competes with Maestro in terms of sniping functionality, but also offers a better price-to-fee ratio. Banana seems destined to win the hearts of “degen” traders, those willing to take extreme risks for potentially huge rewards.
This fluid landscape underscores the constant evolution of platforms and strategies within the crypto gambling underground, with each striving to cater to its user base with changing needs and risk appetites.
Hundreds of ERC-20 tokens are being deployed every day amid a bear market and the lowest DEX volumes since 2020. For some traders, watching the meme coin market is a full-time job. A project that rises 100x can pay back the investment and make a nice profit. Traders can participate in a variety of ways, including pre-sales, snap-ups, and spot purchases of tokens.
Pre-sale: Allocating funds before tokens are released.
Sniping: Using bots to automatically buy tokens when they are released.
Spot: Tokens purchased directly on exchanges like Uniswap or Coinbase.
Traders tend to decide their edge and choose a few categories to focus their energy on. In this process, we will focus primarily on the rush phase; let’s dive in.
Token Sniper
Before the advent of Telegram snap-up bots, the game was all about expertise. Top token sniffers and bot operators would carefully analyze Meme Coin contracts to identify key functions that trigger token releases, maximum transaction volumes, and any measures implemented by developers to discourage early buyers. With the advent of Telegram bots like Banana Gun and Maestro, this approach has been largely replaced.
In short, token snipers are automated trading bots that enable users to execute fast buy and sell orders on newly issued tokens on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. Many of these bots use Telegram as a platform. Developers favor Telegram because it is where trading ideas flourish and it is a crypto-native messaging app. The product-market fit for token snipers is clear as users are adopting them at an increasing rate. Sniper bots can also buy issued tokens with similar speed and efficiency, which accounts for the majority of their trading volume.
These top-level buybots can now simulate entire contract functions, allowing users to bypass the user interface of platforms like Uniswap and simply decide how much ETH to deploy. This shift makes the buy landscape more user-friendly, but also more competitive.
For example, in the case of Maestro, users still need to enter the maximum transaction volume and a certain level of knowledge of contract methods is required in non-advanced mode. This is what differentiates Banana from other competitors - no such expertise is required and the process is even simpler and clearer.
This contrasts with platforms like Uniswap, which recently removed Expert Mode. While the change may have benefited retail traders by adding a layer of security for high-impact trades, it left skilled traders with the task of manually tweaking their strategies, which they are now forced to do. The removal of Expert Mode has had an impact on experienced traders, who have built their own front-ends to improve the experience. This highlights why Telegram snapping bots like Banana Gun, designed for a more mature user base, are gaining traction in the fiercely competitive ERC-20 token trading landscape. By using these bots, traders not only optimize their strategies, but also avoid the limitations imposed by retail-oriented decentralized exchange interfaces.
How do these sniper robots work?
Imagine a trader eyeing the release of $TOKEN in a few days. They simply load up the Telegram app and place the smart contract into the token grabber. After specifying the amount of ETH they are willing to risk, it’s a waiting game. Once the token hits the DEX pool, the Telegram grabber triggers, executing the predefined trading parameters. If all goes according to plan, the trader enters with a 10k market cap (hypothetical example) and within seconds explodes to a 200k market cap — a full 20x profit. But now it’s not that simple. The effectiveness of these grabber bots has led to an influx of traders using the same strategy, often using 10 or more wallets to beat the competition.
That’s why it’s not enough to just have a sniping bot these days; timing is crucial. Enter Banana Gun. Unlike other platforms that require manual input or specific monitoring, Banana Gun optimizes the entire process. Once a contract is added to the bot before token trading begins, Banana’s sniper automatically looks for smart contract triggers like “EnableTrading” to snipe/buy tokens as soon as they are released.
Snipers can also monitor "liquidity added" transactions, now that there is liquidity to enable transactions.
Banana Gun
Banana Gun has democratized the sniping landscape in the crypto space. Previously, sniping was an exclusive activity reserved for individuals with advanced technical skills who were able to read and configure smart contracts. Banana Gun has opened this door to everyone by automating much of the sniping process. Their platform is designed to be very easy to use: you paste a contract and let the bot handle the complex work like determining the method ID, tax rate, and maximum transaction amount. This feature sets them apart from competitors like Maestro, where users need to manually read the contract address and configure the settings.
The cornerstone of Banana Gun’s unique value proposition lies in its user-centric focus on automation and preventing most Rug scams. Not only is Banana Gun automated, every trade is privately executed with a user-set Ethereum bribe. This clever mechanism provides you with an extra layer of security. In an environment where there are people trying to execute Rugs with expensive gas fees, Banana Gun enables you to front-run at a cost-effective price. The private trade feature also ensures that you will never get sandwiched or front-run. A sandwich attack is a way for traders (bots) to exploit transaction ordering by placing transactions before and after a user’s transaction. In fact, Banana Gun takes it a step further and will reverse your transaction if it detects that it is at risk of being sandwiched - even if it was executed privately. Even competitors like Maestro lack this kind of nuanced functionality.
Speed is of the essence, and Banana Gun is currently one of the fastest retail grab bots on the market. It was first launched in early June and has attracted around 700 daily active users and over 12,000 cumulative users.
When the user buys, the interface moves to the sell channel and the user can focus on the selling mechanism. Typically, other snap-up bots buy and sell in a single interface.
Core functions
0 Block Bribe
Bribery is an important feature of Banana Gun, but it is worth noting that Maestro originally pioneered the concept of collective bribery. Maestro's system makes it extremely difficult for a single robot user or sniper to overcome the collective bribery of a group of participants, effectively democratizing the process.
However, Banana Gun takes this approach forward from a whole new angle. While Maestro may have introduced group bribery, Banana Gun perfects it by appealing to a smaller but more sophisticated and experienced user base. These are the people who understand the mechanics of bribery and know how to outwit even a group.
Banana Gun uses a custom RPC, a dedicated node that communicates directly with the blockchain, allowing faster data transfer than standard providers such as Infura or Alchemy. In this high-speed environment, pending transactions from Banana Gun elite snipers are bundled into a transaction package. This package is then forwarded to the block generator, the Ethereum network validation node responsible for grouping transactions.
When the package enters the block generator, the battle becomes fierce. Banana Gun snipers participate in blind bribery, where each participant provides a hidden bribe, also known as a "tip", to ensure faster transaction confirmation. Take user A as an example, he purchases X tokens for 0.20 ETH and includes a bribe of 0.10 ETH. This bribe directly incentivizes the block generator to confirm user A's transaction faster. If the token involves a transaction tax, user A may initially lose money until the token increases in value.
The blind nature of these bribes adds a layer of strategy and unpredictability to the trading process. Since you can’t see other people’s bribes and they can’t see yours, your experience and savvy become your greatest asset. This explains why Banana Gun has consistently led the race for Block 0 despite having a smaller community. The combination of fast custom RPCs, bundled transactions, and blind bribes gives Banana Gun a unique competitive advantage, making it a powerhouse in the token grabbing space. This unique trio streamlines the trading process and creates an environment where skill, strategy, and speed converge, setting Banana Gun apart from its competitors.
Highest cost
Banana Gun made a key update to address one of its initial flaws: users had no control over sniping limits. In its early stages, the bot would automatically buy whatever amount the user set. However, this left some traders vulnerable to sandwich attacks.
To address this, Banana Gun added slippage controls and limit orders to its trading package. Users can now define a "max spend" limit in ETH, which will limit the amount of tokens and gas they are willing to spend. This is particularly beneficial when dealing with tokens that have a maximum transaction volume, meaning that the token contract code limits the maximum amount that can be purchased in one transaction. For example, if a user has a spending cap of "0.25 ETH", the bot will keep the total spend (including gas) below this limit. If the maximum allowed transaction volume is reached, any remaining ETH will be refunded to the user.
A significant new feature added based on user feedback ensures that if a transaction fails to meet the maximum allowed purchase amount, it will be automatically reversed. This protection is critical to prevent situations where a user receives a small amount of tokens but pays a high fee due to a higher bribe from others. This update adds a layer of risk mitigation, making the snap-up game more strategic.
These improvements level the playing field, allowing Banana Gun users to navigate both more cutthroat and more cooperative trading scenarios with greater confidence.
Trading income
Traders use the product, but you might still wonder if developing trading infrastructure like Banana Gun is worth anyone’s time. The bottom line is that Banana Gun generates 10-25+ ETH in revenue per day from trading fees. This is without token revenue (as of September 15th), whereas for Unibot, token revenue adds additional trading fees to its trading volume.
Competitive Landscape
There are several other bots competing with Banana Gun for space, including Maestro and Unibot, which are the biggest snipers. Overall, Maestro has the largest user base. In terms of daily bot usage, Banana Gun recently surpassed Maestro for a few days.
market structure
Currently, the total robot user base exceeds 100,000, and the number of daily active users has consistently exceeded 4,000 since August. Several leading products account for more than 90% of the total number of users - specifically Maestro, Banana Gun and Unibot.
Revenue and expense structure
As of September 15, 2023, Banana Gun reported transaction fee revenue of 756 ETH, or over $1.2 million. Banana Gun operates a low-fee model, charging only 0.5% on total buys and sells, which is attractive to its smaller but more sophisticated user base.
Understanding the fee structure is important to understand why Banana Gun has lower average daily fee revenue despite its trading speed and strategy advantages. In contrast, Maestro charges 1% on total buys and sells, and even offers a $200 per month premium membership for additional features. Another competitor, Unibot, has a completely different model - its revenue comes from taxes as part of its fee structure.
The word “total” is crucial here. If you make a trade of 10 ETH and break even (buy 10 ETH / sell 10 ETH), you still pay fees based on the total trade volume. In Maestro, you pay 0.1 ETH when buying and another 0.1 ETH when selling, for a total of 0.2 ETH. In the case of Banana Gun, you pay 0.005 ETH each when buying and selling, for a total of only 0.01 ETH. This stark difference in fee structure partially explains Banana Gun’s lower daily transaction fee revenue, but it also represents a competitive advantage for cost-conscious users.
By breaking down the fee differences, it can be seen that despite having fewer daily active users, Banana Gun offers an attractive alternative for experienced traders looking to maximize their strategy while minimizing costs.
Outlook: Intent-based Exchange
We predict that Telegram bots will trend towards “intent-based transactions,” essentially acting as automated executors of a user’s specific transaction intent — whether it’s exchanging x, performing y, or z.
An intent is a signature that executes a transaction according to defined criteria, rather than a single transaction (TXN) or a path to the same outcome. By using intents, users have more flexibility and control over the outcomes of their transactions.
If a transaction says “do A then B, pay C to get X in return”, an intent says “I want X, and I’m willing to pay up to C in return.” — Paradigm
Since BananaGun does not route swaps to a third party for execution, it would not generally be considered an intent-based swap. However, we may see tools like the Banana Gun auction or fulfillment of swap orders on behalf of users, or using a request for price (RFQ) model that allows users to submit an order to be fulfilled offline. Banana Gun can currently interact with block builders to enable transactions to be processed faster, enabling launch grabs. In the future, Snipers may turn to off-chain solutions to fulfill early grabs or general swaps. In theory, a user could sign a transaction confirming that they are willing to spend X, and then Banana Gun would process the transaction on the user's behalf, or send it to a premium participant for additional fees.
risk
Like most protocols, Banana Gun is not without risk. Risks are generally similar across DeFi protocols and include economic exploitation or smart contract risk. Economic exploitation refers to exploiting the monetary system within the protocol mechanism, while smart contract exploitation may exist in unaudited code. Both of these risks may be present in sniper bots.
Security Risk
When it comes to Banana Gun, security risks are not limited to smart contract vulnerabilities. The bot has access to the user's private keys, which means that the bot project team technically has control over the user's funds. To mitigate this risk, most traders only keep enough funds in their Telegram wallet to execute trades, moving the rest to a more secure wallet.
There is always a risk that private key data could be accidentally exposed. However, it is worth mentioning that both Banana Gun and Maestro delete private keys in the Telegram UI as soon as they are provided by the user or generated in the app. In the case of Banana Gun, the platform cannot retrieve your private keys for you if you forget or lose them. Private keys are stored on a separate encrypted server that only the bot can access and are protected by multiple layers of security, including marshaling, hashing, and transformation. Marshalling packages the data for secure storage, hashing converts this data into a one-way, irreversible string, and transformation further obfuscates the data into an unreadable format, together ensuring the highest level of protection for private keys.
Bribe (Tip)
Being the fastest comes at a cost. Just like cheetahs can run very fast, the downside is that they need time to rest. With the Banana Gun, users may over-bribe tokens based on pure hype and speculation, eroding profits. If "Sniper A" bribed 0.1 ETH, and the competitor "Sniper B" bribed 0.2 ETH, then "Sniper A"'s buy-in point would be higher. In some cases, unreasonable bribes are added, resulting in losses for many parties involved. Tips are non-refundable and are sent entirely to the block builder.
in conclusion
Banana Gun stands out for its speed, low cost and stability, with a primary focus on execution timing, and many trading successes can be attributed to Banana Gun’s efficiency and trade bundling architecture.
Banana Gun’s continued growth in the depths of the bear market is a testament to the usefulness and demand for the product. Despite the complexity of sniping, Banana Gun’s user base remains strong, with over 700 daily users in just a few months and over 10 ETH in daily revenue in recent weeks.
But the Token Sniper Bot user base is ruthless and has no brand loyalty, so the Banana Gun team must continue to iterate and ensure they have a competitive product.
