Last Updated on October 31, 2023 by Bitfinsider

The well-known Telegram trading tool Unibot is the most recent victim of an ever-expanding series of cryptocurrency breaches.

Concerns were raised today when the project disclosed a “token approval exploit” that affects Unibot. According to the initiative, “Your keys and wallets are safe,” and all money affected by the bot’s “new router” would be reimbursed.

A vulnerability in smart contract permissions that permits unauthorized access or the transfer of a user’s tokens above the specified limit is known as a “token approval exploit”.

Early estimates put the total amount of affected cryptocurrency at about $640,000. Investigations later on also showed that the embezzled money was transferred fast and converted to Ethereum.

A well-liked trading tool on Telegram, Unibot acquired a lot of popularity because of its easy-to-use interface. To put it briefly, Unibot allows users to switch between cryptocurrencies without ever leaving the messaging app. However, users can also take advantage of MEV-protected trading and replicate the techniques of other traders.

The native token of the app, which peaked in mid-August at an astounding $236, is a testament to its popularity.

However, according to CoinGecko data, the exploit news caused a sharp decline in the token’s price, which saw it drop from $57.56 to a pitiful $32.94. At $45.7, the UNIBOT token is now trading hands.

Before transferring the stolen assets through Tornado Cash, the exploiters first moved them to the decentralized exchange Uniswap.

Even though this is one of the earliest well-known Telegram bot attacks, security flaws have shaken the crypto community as a whole.

Some LastPass users reported losing an additional $4.4 million in cryptocurrency just one week prior to the Unibot breach. Security experts are now pointing to a LastPass exploit from last December, even though the frequent exploits over the last ten months had confused many since they appeared to have no pattern.

Inter-blockchain bridges that allow users to transfer assets between incompatible networks have been identified as another major weakness in the cryptocurrency sector. The loan platform Exactly, which relies on Optimism, was compromised for $7 million in August. Although it’s not a large amount, it’s also one of the lesser hauls in comparison to previous, more well-known bridge hacks.