The CEO of Avalanche-based Web3 Social Platform Stars Arena Steps Down

Stars Arena said that the platform’s CEO Chill Pill, resigned from their position, a move that comes nearly a month after the decentralized social finance (SocialFi) application suffered a major smart contract exploit.

Meanwhile, the protocol’s total value locked (TVL) currently stands at a little above $300,000, a significant decrease from a TVL of nearly $3 million before the hacking incident.

Unknown Stars Arena CEO Leaves Position

Stars Arena announced the news of its CEO stepping down on X, adding that the team was working on rebuilding the trust of community members. Chill Pill also tweeted the news of his resignation, with neither Stars Arena nor Chill Pill giving reasons for the development.

As of today, Chill Pill has stepped down from his role as CEO.

We will continue to take significant steps towards rebuilding trust with our community.

— Stars Arena (@starsarenacom) October 29, 2023

Following the news, most members of the crypto community on X were surprised that Stars Arena had a CEO as the social app has not been open about the team behind the project, while others noted that the resignation was one of the fastest in the space.

The SocialFi app launched late in September and is an imitation of the Ethereum-based Friend.tech. Stars Arena allows users to link their X accounts to the platform while using Avalanche’s native coin AVAX to buy shares known as “tickets” from creators.

Stars Arena witnessed surging interest after it went live, causing an uptick in transactions on the Avalanche network. However, the protocol has suffered a couple of hacks.

New TVL Nearly 90% Lower Post Hack

Stars Arena’s first exploit cost the platform $2000, with the team assuring users that they fixed the vulnerability. However, two days after the first incident, the protocol was hit with a second hack, this time resulting in a bigger theft.

As previously reported by CryptoPotato, the attackers drained the project’s TVL, stealing nearly $3 million, leaving just $0.5. At the time of the second attack, Avalanche CEO Gün Sirer seemed confident that the social app would quickly bounce back from the incident. Stars Arena later claimed that the platform received funding to cover the losses incurred.

In another update, the project revealed that the perpetrator behind the hack reached out to the team and returned 90% of the stolen funds in exchange for a 10% bounty and an additional 1,000 AVAX lost in a bridge.

At the time of writing, Stars Arena’s TVL stands at $310,468, according to DefiLlama, an almost 90% drop from $2.78 million before the second exploit.