Trio of Solana-based platforms closing permanently after catastrophic $27M security breach
Following a January cyberattack that drained $27 million from Step Finance, the Solana DeFi aggregator announced it has failed to find a sustainable path forward.
A trio of platforms operating on the Solana blockchain have revealed plans to cease operations permanently following a late-January security incident at Step Finance that proved impossible to overcome.
On Monday, Step Finance, a portfolio dashboard and DeFi aggregation service built on Solana, made public its intention to wind down all business activities. The shutdown will encompass its affiliated entities as well, including SolanaFloor, an NFT analytics platform and ecosystem news source for Solana, along with Remora Markets, a protocol focused on lending and yield generation.
"Following the hack at the end of January, we explored every possible path forward, including financing and acquisition opportunities," it stated, referring to a $27 million security breach of its treasury wallets in January.
According to the team's statement, they were "unable to secure a viable outcome," which led to their conclusion to "end all operations effective immediately."
Step Finance indicated it is developing a buyback program for those holding its native STEP token, with valuations based on a snapshot captured before the security incident occurred. Additionally, a redemption mechanism will be established for individuals holding Remora rToken assets, according to their announcement.
Step suffers $27 million security breach
On Jan. 31, Step Finance disclosed a "breach of security for some of our treasury wallets" and made appeals to cybersecurity companies to provide assistance with their ongoing investigation.
According to a report from blockchain security company CertiK, the attack resulted in 261,854 Solana (SOL) tokens being unstaked and moved to different addresses, representing approximately $27 million in value at that point in time.
Cryptocurrency investor Mike Dudas revealed that Step Finance had approached him about participating in a bridge financing round, but he requested access to the security post-mortem analysis first and never received a reply.
On Tuesday, Step Finance co-founder George Harrap stated that "Some people have reached out on acquiring various businesses, and we will pursue those if serious and have interest, but we are on a time crunch."
In the days immediately after the security breach, the platform's native STEP token experienced a devastating 96% price collapse. Following Monday's shutdown announcement, it dropped an additional 36% and is presently valued at $0.00057, based on data from CoinGecko.
The STEP token reached its peak price of $10.20 in August 2021.
Solana DeFi total value locked tanks 50%
This threefold platform closure represents yet another significant setback for the decentralized finance ecosystem on Solana, where the total value locked on the blockchain has plummeted 52% from its September high point. According to data from DeFiLlama, Solana's DeFi TVL is currently sitting at merely $6.3 billion.
At the same time, SOL token prices have declined an additional 1.8% over the past 24 hours, dropping to $78, based on CoinGecko's data. The cryptocurrency has now retreated 74% from its January 2025 record high of $293, which was achieved during the height of memecoin trading frenzy.