Trader bribes way to $7M profit on SatoshiVM token launch

Update: The article was updated to clarify the bug issue with Banana Gun v1 contract.

A crypto trader made $6.77 million in profit within three hours of the launch of the SatoshiVM (SAVM) token. The trader used a banana gun sniping tool to acquire the to-be-launched token first and then sold the newly launched token as the price increased, raking in nearly $7 million in profits.

The trader first bought 2.61 million SAVM for 277.66 Ether ( ETH ) worth $681,000 using the banana gun trading bot. Banana Gun — which launched in July 2023 — allows users to snipe presale tokens and trade crypto quickly. A trader can choose between “Manual Trade” and “Automatic Sniper,” where the fee for manual trades is 0.5%, while the automatic sniper feature charges a fee of 0.75%.

The token’s price tanked 99% within three hours of the launch. The developers blamed a bug for the collapse during the v1 launch. The team decided to sell treasury to recover the locked LP, and before launching v2 everyone in v1 was made whole and the Banana Gun team took the financial hit.

The trading bot has remained controversial ever since it launched, with several cases of mysterious vanishing funds post-sniping . Although the Banana Gun spokesperson told Cointelegraph that it is not a Banana Gun issue, some token contracts have functions where the contract deployer can move funds out of peoples wallets or other ways to rug. In this case, the tokens never moved to the buyers wallets due to a malicious contract.

The trader in question used the sniping method and paid 141.66 ETH to be the first one to buy SAVM at the opening and managed to grab over 2.5 million tokens.

The user later sold 2.16 million tokens for $4.38 million and currently holds 450,000 SAVM tokens, estimated to be worth $3 million, amounting to roughly $6.77 million in profits.

Related: Telegram trading bots are hot, but don’t trust them for custody — Security firms

The trader was lauded by many on X (formerly Twitter) for the life-changing money he made using the banana gun tool. A few called him a legend, while others praised his willingness to pay 141 ETH in sniping fees.