February 24, 2025
Sophisticated Exploitation
At Consensus in Hong Kong, CertiK’s Kang Li revealed that certain smart contracts are now specifically designed to exploit these bots. “The target is AI trading bots,” Li said.
This follows comments from Hayden Davis, “launch strategist” for LIBRA, who described meme coin projects as a “zero-sum game” controlled by a few. He mentioned that snipers buy tokens before public launches, extracting value without long-term purpose.
Smart Contract Sniping
Bots designed to monitor on-chain activity are now targeted by scammers using tokens with hidden backdoors. These backdoors fool AI bots programmed to detect security risks, allowing scammers to promote a token, attract initial buys, and then quickly pull the rug on the project.
Li pointed out that blockchain security remains critical, with scammers causing massive losses, and law enforcement showing little interest in intervening. While anti-sniping solutions can block malicious transactions, they are often avoided by developers.
