Stars Arena Recovered 90% of the Funds Lost to Hack After Bounty Paid

Stars Arena said in a message posted on X that 90% of the funds lost in the hack of the platform had been recovered.

The platform said it had "reached an agreement with the individual responsible for the recent security breach" and paid a 10% bounty fee plus 1000 AVAX ($9,333).

Earlier, an on-chain message signed by the smart contract address that attacked the Avalanche-based social app Stars Arena suggested that the entity behind the exploit wants to cooperate.

Last week, the up-and-coming social platform Stars Arena was hacked, resulting in a loss of $3 million in AVAX tokens, despite prior warnings from users about potential security vulnerabilities.

Before the hack, Stars Arena was a darling of the Avalanche protocol, pushing up the AVAX token. Market data shows that the token is down 3% in the last week.

Signing transactions is a way pseudonymous hackers make their mark after an attack.

After Poly Network was hacked in 2021, the attacker teased the community via signed messages and threatened to delay the return of funds. Meanwhile, virtual beggars used the same tactic to panhandle for donations from the attacker.

In March, the individual responsible for Euler Finance's $200 million exploit returned over $120 million to the protocol and issued an apology via signed messages on different blockchain transactions, identifying as “Jacob.”

In 2020, Bitcoin addresses that Craig Wright claims to own were used to sign a public message labeling him a “fraud" and refuting his ownership of them.

UPDATE (October 11, 2023, 21:17): Updates headline and first paragraph to reflect fund recovery.