Stars Arena, a decentralized social media platform built on the Avalanche blockchain, has seen its unnamed CEO, known only by the pseudonym Chill Pill, resign following two damaging exploits of the protocol’s smart contracts within days of its launch.
The sudden departure of Chill Pill, whose identity was never disclosed by Stars Arena, comes a month after the SocialFi app was drained of nearly $3 million by hackers. The team announced the CEO’s resignation providing no explanation for the move.
Stars Arena aims to be a Friend.tech competitor, allowing users to purchase “tickets” to support creators with Avalanche’s AVAX token. It saw a surge of interest after going live in late September, driving increased transaction volume on Avalanche.
However, the protocol suffered its first exploit costing around $2,000 shortly after launch. Stars Arena claimed to have fixed the vulnerability but was then hacked again just two days later, resulting in close to $3 million being stolen and its total value locked (TVL) being drained to just $500,000.
Following the larger hack, Stars Arena alleged it had received funding to recoup losses. It also claimed the perpetrator had returned 90% of stolen funds in exchange for a 10% bounty and 1,000 additional AVAX lost when bridging assets.
Despite those efforts, Stars Arena’s TVL sits at only $310,000 currently – nearly a 90% decrease from the $2.78 million prior to the major exploit. The departing CEO marks continued turmoil for the platform as it works to rebuild community trust after the damaging hacks.
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