Stars Arena

27 September 2023

Stars Arena launches on Avalanche, developed by pseudonymous 'theBuilder'. Platform modeled on Friend.tech, allowing trading of creator access tickets. TVL grows 3,400% to $1 million within the first week.

5 October 2023

First exploit: a broken getPrice() function allows an attacker to drain approximately $2,000 from the contract. The attack is economically inefficient, costing more in gas than it yields. Security researcher @0xlilitch publicly flags the vulnerability.

5 October 2023

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer publicly dismisses the vulnerability, characterizing the exploit as economically irrational and calling community concern 'FUD'. Stars Arena team calls it 'coordinated FUD' and deploys a new, unverified replacement contract.

7 October 2023

Second exploit: A reentrancy vulnerability in the new contract's sellShares() function is exploited. The attacker manipulates a share-price weighting variable during a deposit callback, draining 266,103 AVAX (approximately $2.9 million), the entirety of the platform's TVL. Funds are dispersed across 266 wallets. A subsequent DDoS attack disrupts the team's communications.

7 October 2023

Stars Arena suspends platform operations and posts a security notice advising users not to deposit funds. Smart contract attacker address identified as 0xa2Ebf3FCD757e9BE1E58B643b6B5077D11b4ad7A.

11 October 2023

Stars Arena announces it has reached a bounty agreement with the exploiter. The attacker agrees to return approximately 90% of stolen funds in exchange for a 27,610 AVAX bounty (~$257,000) plus 1,000 AVAX. The exploiter signals cooperation via an on-chain signed message.

12 October 2023

Stars Arena confirms recovery of approximately 90% of stolen funds and announces it has secured outside funding to cover the remaining shortfall, committing to make all users whole upon relaunch. Platform announces pending audit by Paladin before reopening.

November 2023

Stars Arena is acquired by a new team following near-collapse of the original project. Original pseudonymous developer 'theBuilder' exits. Contract is fully rewritten and submitted for independent Paladin security audit.

7 December 2023

Platform rebrands from Stars Arena to The Arena (arena.social) under new management.

October 2024

The Arena closes a $2 million pre-seed funding round with investors including Blizzard (Avalanche Ecosystem Fund), Ava Labs leadership, Balaji Srinivasan, Abstract Ventures, and D1 Ventures. Platform reports 200,000+ registered users.

May 2025

The Arena launches V2, incorporating a bonding-curve token launchpad and native DEX. The DEX clears approximately $25 million in volume in its first week.