{"investigation":{"slug":"alpha-finance","entity_name":"Alpha Finance Lab","trust_score":59,"severity_base":59,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.88,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Alpha Finance Lab (later rebranded Alpha Venture DAO, and subsequently as the Stella protocol) was a Thailand-linked DeFi venture founded around mid-2020, best known for the leveraged yield-farming product Alpha Homora. Its Alpha Homora v2 contract was exploited in February 2021 for roughly $37.5 million, creating bad debt with its credit line provider Iron Bank (an offshoot of Cream Finance), which in 2023 froze depositor funds in a dispute over repayment that led Alpha to set up a goodwill fund and depositors to vote for legal action against Iron Bank. No regulatory or law-enforcement action against the project was identified in available sources; most of the record consists of crypto-industry reporting and the parties' own statements, which conflict on several points.","sections":[{"content":"Alpha Finance Lab was founded around June 2020, with Tascha Punyaneramitdee and Nipun Pitimanaaree commonly identified as co-founders; Punyaneramitdee previously worked at Jefferies and at Tencent in Bangkok before the project, and is also credited as founder of a separate venture, INFINIT, launched in 2023. The project's flagship product, Alpha Homora, launched on Ethereum in October 2020 as a leveraged yield-farming protocol allowing users to farm with leverage of up to several multiples of their deposited capital. A second version, Alpha Homora v2, extended this to multiple assets and allowed borrowing from Cream Finance's Iron Bank lending facility on an under-collateralized, protocol-to-protocol basis. The broader Alpha ecosystem also included planned products such as AlphaX (a perpetual-swap exchange concept) and Alpha Buy Wall (an NFT bidding tool). Reported early investors included The Spartan Group, Multicoin Capital, and DeFiance Capital. The project was later rebranded to Alpha Venture DAO, and its lending/leverage product was subsequently rebranded again as 'Stella,' described as a leveraged-strategies protocol with zero-cost borrowing, operating on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and BNB Chain; the ALPHA token continued as the native token under the new branding.","heading":"Background and Products","sources":[{"url":"https://defiprime.com/alpha-homora","name":"DeFiPrime: Alpha Homora","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/tascha-punyaneramitdee.md","name":"iq.wiki profile of Tascha Punyaneramitdee","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.binance.com/en/research/projects/stella","name":"Binance Research: Stella","type":"research","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.gate.com/crypto-wiki/article/stella-alpha-summary-leveraged-yield-farming-reimagined","name":"Gate.com crypto wiki: Stella / Alpha","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"On February 13, 2021, an attacker exploited the newly deployed Alpha Homora v2 contract, draining approximately $37.5 million in ETH and stablecoins. The attacker deployed a malicious 'spell' (Alpha's term for a strategy smart contract) that Alpha Homora's system treated as trusted, which was then used to cause Cream Finance's Iron Bank credit facility to lend out the funds on an under-collateralized basis. Security researchers additionally described a rounding-error flaw in the exploit chain that allowed debt to be taken on without a matching share of collateral. Early speculation blamed Cream Finance, but Cream stated its own contracts functioned as designed and reporting subsequently attributed the root-cause flaw to the Alpha Homora v2 contract itself, not Cream. The exploit occurred roughly a month after the protocol had completed two security audits. The attacker reportedly later returned a portion of funds (1,000 ETH each) to the Alpha and Cream deployer addresses and made a donation to Gitcoin; Alpha paused borrowing on Homora v2 and stated it was patching the vulnerability.","heading":"February 2021 Exploit — Attribution and Mechanism","sources":[{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/defi/2021-02-13-alpha-homora-exploited-for-37-5m-94809","name":"The Block: Alpha Homora exploited for $37.5M","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/alpha-homora-loses-37-million-following-iron-bank-exploit","name":"Cointelegraph: Alpha Homora loses $37 million following Iron Bank exploit","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://thedefiant.io/cream-and-alpha-finance-get-hacked-for-37-5m/","name":"The Defiant: Cream and Alpha Finance get hacked for $37.5M","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://halborn.com/explained-the-alpha-homora-defi-hack-feb-2021","name":"Halborn: Explained — the Alpha Homora DeFi hack, Feb 2021","type":"research","credibility":2},{"url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/cream-finance-drained-of-37-5-million-in-major-exploit/","name":"CryptoBriefing: Alpha Finance exploited in $37.5 million attack","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://secureum.substack.com/p/making-alpha-safu-secureum-9","name":"Secureum: Making Alpha SAFU","type":"research","credibility":2}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"Following the exploit, Alpha and Iron Bank (by then operating as an offshoot of Cream Finance) negotiated a repayment arrangement for the resulting bad debt, reported at roughly $32 million. Under the agreement, Alpha Homora would direct 20% of its protocol fees toward repayment and post ALPHA token collateral valued at roughly twice the debt, with a provision allowing Iron Bank to liquidate the collateral if its value fell below about 1.66 times the debt (absent fresh top-ups). As the ALPHA token price fell sharply during the 2021–2022 downturn, the collateral's value eroded; according to Iron Bank, Alpha had repaid only a small fraction of the debt (reported figures include roughly $481,746–$500,000 against the original $32.4 million over roughly two years), while Alpha's account disputes the characterization and says Iron Bank failed to liquidate the collateral in time when its value dropped below the contractual threshold.","heading":"Post-Exploit Response and Initial Debt Agreement","sources":[{"url":"https://blog.alphaventuredao.io/iron-bank-and-alpha-homora-conflict-summarized/","name":"Alpha Venture DAO blog: Iron Bank and Alpha Homora conflict summarized","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://ibdotxyz.medium.com/timeline-between-iron-bank-alpha-homora-v2-e0bfe75467b8","name":"Iron Bank Medium: Timeline between Iron Bank & Alpha Homora v2","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2023-03-02-iron-bank-freezes-alpha-homora-lending-accounts-over-bad-debt-dispute-216536","name":"The Block: Iron Bank freezes Alpha Homora lending accounts over bad debt dispute","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"On or around March 1–2, 2023, Iron Bank froze Alpha Homora's lending accounts via its multisig, citing unresolved bad debt it placed above $30 million (reported at $32.4 million), and said the move was intended to protect its other depositors. Alpha denied reneging on the agreement and accused Iron Bank of acting unilaterally, without DAO or community approval, in a way that trapped Alpha Homora depositors' funds — estimated by some commentary at up to roughly $50 million in frozen assets, substantially more than the underlying bad debt. Iron Bank set a short deadline (reported as March 6, 2023) for full repayment, which passed without resolution; commentary from Rekt News criticized Iron Bank for using administrative control to effectively hold user funds hostage over a protocol-level debt dispute. Negotiations continued over the following months: Alpha proposed that Iron Bank retain approximately $32 million to satisfy the debt while returning roughly $8.7–11 million in excess user funds, a proposal Iron Bank did not accept. By late April 2023, Alpha Homora token holders and depositors voted to end negotiations and pursue legal action against Iron Bank. On May 11, 2023, Alpha announced a 'goodwill fund' for affected depositors, consisting of 30 million ALPHA tokens vesting monthly over 18 months (starting May 17, 2023) plus 50% of future Alpha Homora protocol fees for 18 months (up from the 20% originally pledged to Iron Bank), with allocations based on each depositor's share of frozen funds (deposit value plus accrued interest) as of a May 11, 2023 snapshot. As of that announcement, negotiations had ended and depositor funds remained frozen in Iron Bank pending any unfreezing by Iron Bank; available sources do not show a documented final resolution, confirmed release of the frozen funds, or a filed court case, and the parties' public accounts of fault differ substantially.","heading":"Iron Bank Dispute and Frozen User Funds (2023)","sources":[{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2023-03-02-iron-bank-freezes-alpha-homora-lending-accounts-over-bad-debt-dispute-216536","name":"The Block: Iron Bank freezes Alpha Homora lending accounts over bad debt dispute","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2023-03-03-iron-bank-tells-alpha-homora-to-take-ownership-of-its-bad-debt-216832","name":"The Block: Iron Bank tells Alpha Homora to 'take ownership' of its bad debt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/alpha-homora-cedes-32m-user-funds-iron-bank","name":"The Defiant: Alpha Homora cedes $32M user funds to Iron Bank","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://rekt.news/iron-alpha/","name":"Rekt News: Iron Bank vs Alpha Homora","type":"community_report","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/defi-partners-clash-over-32m-bad-debt-iron-bank-alpha-homora/","name":"DL News: DeFi partners clash over $32M bad debt — Iron Bank, Alpha Homora","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://blog.alphaventuredao.io/tenth-open-letter-goodwill-fund/","name":"Alpha Venture DAO blog: Tenth Open Letter — Goodwill Fund","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://ibdotxyz.medium.com/timeline-between-iron-bank-alpha-homora-v2-e0bfe75467b8","name":"Iron Bank Medium: Timeline between Iron Bank & Alpha Homora v2","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://blockbytes.com/2023/03/08/iron-bank-vs-alpha-homora-protocol-exploits-protocol/","name":"BlockBytes: Iron Bank vs Alpha Homora, protocol exploits protocol","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"critical"},{"content":"No regulatory enforcement action, SEC/CFTC filing, or court case naming Alpha Finance Lab, Alpha Venture DAO, or Stella as a defendant was identified in available sources. Alpha Homora token holders voted in 2023 to pursue legal action against Iron Bank over the frozen-funds dispute, and later statements from the Stella team (successor to Alpha Venture DAO) referenced an intent to proceed with a legal case against Iron Bank, but no independent reporting of a filed complaint, docket, or litigation outcome was found. This section should be treated as reflecting an absence of evidence rather than a confirmed clean record; absence of a known regulatory action does not establish that none exists.","heading":"Regulatory and Legal Status","sources":[{"url":"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/defi-partners-clash-over-32m-bad-debt-iron-bank-alpha-homora/","name":"DL News: DeFi partners clash over $32M bad debt","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/stella-final-stip-round-1/17328/10","name":"Arbitrum Forum: Stella STIP Round 1 (reference to legal case vote)","type":"community_report","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"The Alpha Finance Lab brand transitioned to Alpha Venture DAO and subsequently to a product named Stella, described as a leveraged-strategies lending protocol with advertised zero-cost borrowing, deployed on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and BNB Chain, with the ALPHA token retained as the native governance/utility token. The exact date of the Stella rebrand was not confirmed in available sources. Market data sources show conflicting figures for the protocol's total value locked, and reporting from late 2025 characterized the ALPHA token as having declined sharply from its 2021 highs to low single-cent price levels amid broader market weakness and reduced on-chain activity. Overall project activity and relevance appear substantially diminished compared to the protocol's 2020–2021 peak.","heading":"Current Project Status","sources":[{"url":"https://www.binance.com/en/research/projects/stella","name":"Binance Research: Stella","type":"research","credibility":2},{"url":"https://onekey.so/blog/ecosystem/in-depth-report-alpha-token-recent-performance-can-it-still-rise","name":"OneKey: In-depth report on ALPHA token performance","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://messari.io/project/alpha-finance/profile","name":"Messari: Alpha Finance project profile","type":"research","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2020-10","event":"Alpha Homora launches on Ethereum mainnet as a leveraged yield-farming protocol.","source":"DeFiPrime","source_url":"https://defiprime.com/alpha-homora"},{"date":"2021-02-13","event":"Alpha Homora v2 is exploited via a malicious 'spell' contract, causing Cream Finance's Iron Bank to lend out roughly $37.5 million to the attacker.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/defi/2021-02-13-alpha-homora-exploited-for-37-5m-94809","date_evidence":"In the morning of February 13, 2021, the Alpha Finance DeFi project was hacked."},{"date":"2023-03","event":"Iron Bank freezes Alpha Homora's lending accounts over roughly $30-32 million in unresolved bad debt stemming from the 2021 exploit, trapping depositor funds.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/ecosystems/2023-03-02-iron-bank-freezes-alpha-homora-lending-accounts-over-bad-debt-dispute-216536"},{"date":"2023-04","event":"Alpha publishes its Eighth Open Letter announcing depositors voted to stop negotiating with Iron Bank.","source":"Alpha Venture DAO blog","source_url":"https://blog.alphaventuredao.io/iron-bank-and-alpha-homora-conflict-summarized/","date_original":"2023-04-23"},{"date":"2023-05-11","event":"Alpha announces a 'goodwill fund' of 30 million ALPHA tokens plus 50% of future protocol fees for 18 months, to compensate depositors whose funds remain frozen at Iron Bank.","source":"Alpha Venture DAO blog: Tenth Open Letter","source_url":"https://blog.alphaventuredao.io/tenth-open-letter-goodwill-fund/","date_evidence":"Tenth Open Letter announced the goodwill fund... snapshot taken May 11, 2023, at 2PM UTC"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/defi/2021-02-13-alpha-homora-exploited-for-37-5m-94809","name":"The Block: Alpha Homora exploited for $37.5M","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/alpha-homora-loses-37-million-following-iron-bank-exploit","name":"Cointelegraph: Alpha Homora loses $37 million following Iron Bank 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