The cryptocurrency market has witnessed a surge within the adoption of automated buying and selling options, with buying and selling bots gaining prominence for his or her means to investigate huge knowledge units and execute trades with precision.
Cointelegraph has dissected historic bot revenues and token value rollercoasters and backtested technique returns in opposition to the buy-and-hold yardstick to decode what bots shine brightest — and when — so you possibly can choose the right bot to match your fashion and abdomen for danger.
We’ve got examined three forms of buying and selling bots: Telegram bots buying and selling on decentralized exchanges (DEX), non-Telegram bots buying and selling on DEXs and on centralized exchanges (CEXs), and the not too long ago evolving AI agent bots.
Choosing the proper buying and selling bot depends upon the consumer’s targets, danger tolerance and expertise. At a look:
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Telegram bots are perfect for quick, opportunistic buying and selling like token launches and memecoins.
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AI agent bots, comparable to ai16z or Virtuals, go well with customers who need hands-off automation and are comfy with experimental methods.
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CEX bots supply essentially the most management and are greatest for structured methods like dollar-cost averaging (DCA), grid or signal-based buying and selling.
Bot buying and selling methods and efficiency
Buying and selling bots are subtle automated techniques that use algorithms to investigate cryptocurrency market knowledge and autonomously execute trades on centralized exchanges or decentralized platforms. These bots usually function repeatedly, 24 hours a day, seven days per week, requiring minimal human oversight. Their core operate includes the evaluation of in depth quantities of real-time and historic market knowledge, together with value fluctuations, buying and selling volumes and order ebook info.
There are quite a few potential benefits to using AI agent buying and selling bots. Their steady operation ensures that no buying and selling alternatives are missed, as they will monitor markets across the clock, accommodating international market actions. Some platforms providing these bots additionally present backtesting capabilities, enabling customers to judge the potential effectiveness of various buying and selling methods utilizing historic knowledge earlier than deploying them with actual capital.
Telegram DEX bots
Telegram bots function through Telegram, leveraging its accessibility and real-time communication to execute trades straight on DEXs. They typically give attention to pace and sniping new tokens, interesting to customers in fast-moving ecosystems like Solana. The not too long ago launched protocols additionally included further options which might be typically out there in CEX buying and selling bots, comparable to grid buying and selling, DCA and restrict orders.
Telegram bots comparable to Maestro and Unibot first appeared round 2020–2021. In 2022, many of those bots have been already providing superior options like copy buying and selling and arbitrage.
By the tip of 2023, Solana-based bots like BONKBot and Trojan Bot gained prominence for his or her pace in buying and selling memecoins on DEXs. The largest benefit of Telegram bots is their means to commerce on cellular units with out the necessity for an internet browser extension to hook up with a pockets. It massively improves the usability of cellular buying and selling, monitoring and integration with social networks.
The highest 5 Telegram bots by historic buying and selling quantity throughout all blockchains are Trojan, BonkBot, Maestro, Banana Gun and Sol Buying and selling Bot. The vast majority of the buying and selling volumes up to now 90 days occurred on Solana, the place the entire high 5 Telegram bots function.
The functionalities provided by the Telegram bots are very related, with the exception that a few of them (i.e., Maestro and Banana Gun) give attention to multichain operations, whereas the remainder give attention to Solana.
The primary use case for Telegram bots is to mechanically establish worthwhile entry and exit factors and execute trades shortly; it’s very troublesome to trace the income or losses made by particular person customers from every commerce. Since a number of the Telegram bots, comparable to Banana Gun and BonkBot, supply a revenue-sharing mannequin tied to their very own tokens within the type of buying again their tokens with the 1% price they cost, the token value and income (charges acquired) are used as an approximation of the efficiency of Telegram bots.
Trying on the whole income up to now six months, Trojan has acquired essentially the most nominal quantity in charges (round $109 million), whereas Sol Buying and selling Bot has the very best median each day income when normalizing the each day income when it comes to the overall income.
All of them noticed a peak round January 2025 through the memecoin season however are actually dealing with a low-revenue interval because of the broader bearish market circumstances.
The 2 Telegram bots that share income by way of their tokens are Banana Gun and BonkBot. Trying on the value evolution up to now six months, the efficiency of the remaining elements could be very related, apart from the numerous rise in BONK’s value in November 2024. They each skilled important value drops through the latest bearish market circumstances.
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AI agent bots
AI agent buying and selling bots are subtle automated techniques that leverage synthetic intelligence and machine studying (ML) algorithms to investigate cryptocurrency market knowledge and autonomously execute trades.
The time period “agent” suggests these bots possess a level of independence and decision-making functionality that extends past the mounted guidelines of conventional automated buying and selling techniques. Probably the most well-known AI agent frameworks that exist at the moment are Virtuals and ai16z.
Virtuals Protocol, launched in October 2024 on the Ethereum layer-2 community Base, is an AI agent generator platform designed to simplify the creation and deployment of AI brokers on the blockchain. Whereas Virtuals just isn’t solely centered on buying and selling, the platform permits the event of AI brokers that would probably be designed for buying and selling functions. For example, Aixbt, an experimental AI agent on the platform, tracks discussions on X to establish potential market insights, suggesting a method that would inform buying and selling selections.
Since Virtuals Protocol focuses on a launchpad mannequin the place brokers are tokenized individually (e.g., LUNA and AIXBT) and function throughout completely different areas comparable to gaming, buying and selling and leisure, we’ll solely look into the efficiency of AIXBT, the token of the buying and selling agent with the biggest market capitalization on Virtuals.
Ai16z is an AI-powered buying and selling fund working on the Solana blockchain. Launched in October 2024, ai16z makes use of subtle AI brokers, powered by the Eliza framework, to autonomously analyze market knowledge, together with value actions, social media sentiment and onchain analytics, and execute trades.
The fund capabilities as an AI funding decentralized autonomous group (DAO), permitting holders of its native token to take part in governance by voting on key selections and influencing buying and selling methods by way of a “digital market of belief.” AI Marc, a digital fund supervisor constructed utilizing the Eliza framework, oversees the fund’s buying and selling actions. AI16Z tokens signify possession within the fund and grant governance rights, with the agent’s actions driving token worth.
Evaluating the buying and selling volumes from these two brokers, they each reached a peak in January 2025, with AI16Z reaching $501 million and AIXBT reaching $682 million. AI16Z’s value hit its peak barely sooner than its quantity excessive, whereas for AIXBT, the worth and quantity peaks coincided across the identical time.
AIXBT’s value efficiency is extra spectacular than AI16Z. On the peak, the token value was nearly 4,000x the preliminary value in November 2024, whereas for AI16Z, this was round 111x. Even after the latest downturn and the broader market trending down, the newest value file on the finish of March 2025 remains to be 478x the preliminary value for AIXBT and 6.8x for AI16Z.
DEX/CEX bots
These platforms are web-based and function exterior Telegram. You possibly can commerce straight on DEXs by way of pockets connection or connect with a CEX through APIs or a easy login possibility as a part of their built-in trade options.
These web-based platforms supply a variety of methods and broader market entry; they cater to customers preferring each CEX liquidity and reliability in addition to DEX’s decentralized, non-custodial nature. A few of these platforms additionally supply a fast swap between DEX and CEX with one click on, making the invention of value discrepancies between CEX and DEX (or CEX-DEX arbitrage) a lot simpler.
The commonest methods out there on these platforms are grid, DCA and sign bot. A DCA bot invests a hard and fast amount of cash right into a cryptocurrency at common intervals — whatever the asset’s value. The concept is to unfold out your entry factors over time, which helps scale back the influence of market volatility. This sort of technique tends to carry out properly throughout price-trending durations.
A grid bot is constructed for lively buying and selling — shopping for low and promoting excessive in a structured option to revenue from value fluctuations. A grid bot locations a sequence of purchase and promote restrict orders at preset intervals above and beneath a set value vary. This creates a “grid” of orders, and the bot income from every accomplished buy-low/sell-high cycle. Grid bot works greatest in sideways markets with excessive volatility.
A sign bot executes trades based mostly on exterior indicators — these often come from technical indicators, market evaluation or third-party providers. These indicators might be relative energy index (RSI), exponential transferring averages (EMA), Bollinger Bands, and so on.
The next desk exhibits the historic efficiency for the token pairs BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT and SOL/USDT for the three buying and selling methods. The parameter choice for the grid bot makes use of the 3Commas AI optimization built-in performance to pick out one of the best parameters, whereas for DCA, the most well-liked traditional buying and selling technique from their customers is chosen.
For the sign bot, Dash2Trade supplies technique presets the place the highest technique for every token is chosen. These methods are backtested on a proprietary system used to commerce on dwell markets however are solely out there for the 120 days earlier than Jan. 26, 2025.
Because of an absence of constant availability of information on the platforms, three backtesting durations have been used for every of the three methods. The desk beneath exhibits the straightforward value change through the corresponding interval, which can be the return for the straightforward benchmark buy-and-hold technique.
The out there knowledge means that efficiency can differ extensively based mostly on the precise bot, the buying and selling technique employed and the prevailing market circumstances on the time the backtests have been run.
Through the 120-day interval from Sept. 26, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025, when the sign bots have been backtested, the market costs for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have been all upward trending with a buy-and-hold return of 58%, 23% and 55%, respectively. The sign bots’ methods have been performing in step with the buy-and-hold technique (in some circumstances barely worse) for BTC (58.15%), ETH (16.79%) and SOL (48.68%).
Evaluating the identical 120-day interval however from Dec. 4, 2024, to April 4, 2025, when grid bots have been backtested, the market costs for BTC, ETH and SOL have been all experiencing a downward development, with a buy-and-hold return of -16%, -53% and -49%, respectively, which is totally completely different from the earlier 120-day backtesting interval. The grid bots’ methods have been performing a lot better than the buy-and-hold technique through the downward-trending, high-volatility market circumstances, giving constructive returns for BTC (9.6%), ETH (10.4%) and SOL (21.88%).
For the longest 180-day backtesting interval from Oct. 4, 2024, to April 4, 2025, when the DCA bots have been backtested, the buy-and-hold returns for BTC, ETH and SOL have been 34%, -25% and -18%, respectively. The sign bots’ methods have been performing very in another way for the three tokens in comparison with the buy-and-hold technique.
For BTC, a 17.75% return is generated from the DCA bots, which is worse than the buy-and-hold technique. Nonetheless, for ETH (58.12%) and SOL (80.92%), the DCA returns are a lot better than the buy-and-hold returns. This is perhaps resulting from the truth that ETH and SOL skilled a lot greater volatility through the interval in comparison with BTC, and the DCA technique was in a position to unfold out entry costs to cut back publicity to unhealthy timing.
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Buying and selling bot efficiency comparability
Telegram DEX bots like Trojan and Sol Buying and selling Bot dominated in income over the previous six months, with Trojan incomes about $109 million in charges. Sol Buying and selling Bot stood out for constant each day earnings relative to its dimension.
Nonetheless, all bots noticed income peak through the January 2025 memecoin hype and have since slowed resulting from bearish market sentiment. Token-linked bots (BANANA, BONK) adopted the same sample — transient surges (notably BONK in November 2024) adopted by steep drops tied to broader market developments.
AI agent bots confirmed explosive development throughout the identical interval. AIXBT reached a peak value 4,000x its preliminary worth, far outperforming AI16Z (111x). Even post-correction, AIXBT held sturdy at 478x vs. AI16Z’s 6.8x. Quantity-wise, each peaked in January 2025, however AIXBT’s token value carefully tracked its quantity rise, suggesting sturdy speculative momentum.
CEX/DEX indicators, grid and DCA bots confirmed the significance of market circumstances, and the efficiency outcomes differ rather a lot in comparison with the buy-and-hold technique.
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Sign bots carried out near the buy-and-hold technique through the uptrend market situation (backtesting interval September 2024–January 2025), with marginally decrease or related returns.
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Grid bots excelled throughout a downtrend and excessive volatility atmosphere (backtesting interval December 2024–April 2025), beating the buy-and-hold technique by broad margins, flipping damaging market returns into double-digit positive factors.
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DCA bots over a 180-day backtesting interval (October 2024–April 2025) had blended outcomes; they underperformed the buy-and-hold technique for BTC however dramatically outperformed ETH and SOL, more than likely resulting from their means to soak up and capitalize on volatility.
Key takeaways
We’ve got dived into the wild world of AI-powered crypto buying and selling bots, pitting Telegram DEX bots, AI agent bots and CEX/DEX bots in opposition to one another — every a singular software tailor-made to completely different merchants and market circumstances.
Telegram DEX bots are designed for ease of use, with a easy interface embedded within the Telegram app. These bots give attention to buying and selling memecoins or taking part in token launches onchain. They attraction to mobile-savvy merchants and memecoin fanatics who prioritize fast trades and social integration, with options comparable to copy commerce and revenue-sharing by way of tokens.
Telegram DEX bots generated important income up to now six months, peaking in January 2025’s memecoin season. However not all of them share income with the customers. The one two who did (BANANA, BONK) faltered within the latest bearish market, with token costs dropping sharply.
AI agent bots use pure language interfaces and AI decision-making to decrease the barrier to entry for customers all for governance (e.g., AI16Z’s DAO mannequin) or sentiment-driven methods (e.g., AIXBT’s X evaluation). Their major energy lies in abstracting advanced buying and selling methods by way of conversational interfaces.
Though AI agent bots’ token value exhibited explosive development, the latest market downtrend has led to much less buying and selling exercise and decrease token costs. AI agent bots stand out as a extra experimental class. They continue to be below growth and are greatest fitted to customers who’re tech-curious or searching for a hybrid between simplicity and automation.
Bots working on DEXs or CEXs straight supply web-based platforms with numerous methods, suiting extra skilled merchants who want high-speed execution, multi-exchange entry, deep liquidity and sophisticated configurability. The backtesting outcomes present sign bots give related returns to the bullish buy-and-hold technique, whereas grid bots thrive in risky downturn markets, and DCA bots outperform the buy-and-hold technique for extra risky property.
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