Web3 social media platform, Stars Arena, has successfully recovered approximately 90% of the crypto assets stolen during an exploit on October 7th. The stolen amount, which included 266,000 Avalanche (AVAX) tokens valued at around $3 million at that time, has been restored.
Stars Arena Recovers 90% of Stolen Crypto Funds After Exploit, Offers Bounty
The recovery was made possible through an agreement with the individual responsible for the exploit. As part of the agreement, a substantial bounty of 27,610 AVAX, equating to nearly $257,000, was offered to the exploiter.
Additionally, the bounty includes compensation for 1,000 AVAX, valued at over $9,000, which appeared to have been lost by the exploiter during a bridge operation.
Stars Arena further announced that they have created a new smart contract. Before deploying the returned funds and relaunching the platform, they are in the final stages of conducting a thorough audit of this new contract to ensure the security of users’ assets.
The initial incident on October 7th was characterized as a “major security breach,” with the platform’s smart contract compromised, resulting in the drainage of funds. Following this, Stars Arena took swift action to secure funding to address the breach and contracted a development team to carry out a comprehensive security audit. However, the exact details of how the exploit occurred are yet to be disclosed.
In a related note, on October 5th, Stars Arena experienced a smaller exploit, where hackers managed to abscond with approximately $2,000. This incident was attributed to a vulnerability in the platform’s smart contract that allowed the exploiter to exchange user shares for AXAX. Stars Arena has since addressed and patched this vulnerability.
It’s worth noting that users of Stars Arena’s primary competitor, Friend.tech, have also faced targeted SIM-swap attacks. As a proactive response, Friend.tech has recently implemented enhanced security features to thwart such attempts.
This successful recovery of stolen funds and proactive security measures demonstrate the resilience and commitment of Stars Arena to protect its users and maintain the integrity of its platform.
