Key Takeaways :
- Avalanche project Stars Arena falls victim to a $2.9 million exploit, depleting its smart contract to a mere $0.051.
- Stars Arena issues a warning, urging users not to deposit funds as the platform remains under a DDOS attack.
Stars Arena, the latest sensation in the world of SocialFi, has fallen prey to a devastating hack. The project’s smart contract witnessed a continual depletion of assets, and the absence of any transaction confirmations solidified suspicions of a hack. The project management issued a statement confirming the attack.
An alarming $3 million worth of AVAX tokens from the Avalanche network were drained, leaving Stars Arena with just under $1 in remaining funds after the attacker’s actions. Twitter user @0xLawliette, formerly known as X, appeared to be the first to raise the alarm about the exploit in the early hours of an Asian Saturday, while another user, @0xlilitch, voiced concerns about potential security vulnerabilities yesterday.
While the team did not disclose the exact stolen amount, blockchain security experts at PeckShield estimated the theft to be nearly $3 million in AVAX tokens.
DeFiLlama data reveals that the culprits exited the project with approximately $0.5 remaining in total locked value, indicating that they virtually drained all assets.
This attack occurred shortly after several X users had cautioned about potential security weaknesses within the Stars Arena smart contract. Interestingly, Emin Gün Sirer, the founder of Avalanche, had downplayed these warnings.
In a post on X, Star Arena acknowledged that the platform continues to face a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. In a DDoS attack, malicious actors disrupt the normal operations of a platform by inundating it with an excessive volume of traffic.
Star Arena further stated:
“We are actively developing a solution to ensure the recovery of everyone’s funds and to enable the Arena to progress.”
A cautionary advisory was issued, urging users not to deposit funds into the system. It is estimated that assets exceeding $3 million have been drained from the project’s smart contract.
Experts advise users who have linked their wallets and Twitter accounts to Stars Arena to sever these connections.
