Solana DeFi Platform Step Finance Shuts Down After $27M Hack
Solana-based DeFi dashboard Step Finance has shut down all operations after suffering a $27 million hack. The protocol's native token, STEP, subsequently crashed by 96%. The incident follows reports that most Solana meme coins are down 90% and the creation platform Pump.fun has been implicated in thousands of rug pulls.
- The security breach on January 31, 2026, was not a smart contract exploit; rather, attackers compromised devices belonging to the executive team, gaining access to private keys for treasury and fee wallets. - Initial reports valued the stolen 261,854 SOL at around $27 million, but later assessments by the company placed the total losses across all assets at nearly $40 million. The team was able to recover approximately $4.7 million. - At its peak, Step Finance served as a core portfolio analytics tool for the Solana ecosystem, with 2.4 million users. The shutdown also affects its affiliated platforms, the media outlet SolanaFloor and the lending protocol Remora Markets. - The platform's native token, STEP, reached an all-time high of over $10 in 2021. Following the shutdown announcement, the token's value collapsed by more than 99% from its peak, with its market capitalization falling to under $200,000. - Step Finance has announced plans for a buyback program for STEP holders, which will be based on a token snapshot taken prior to the January 31 hack. Additionally, users of the affiliated Remora Markets platform will be able to redeem their rTokens, which remain fully backed. - A report by the blockchain security firm Solidus Labs found that 98.6% of tokens launched on the Pump.fun platform were identified as rug pulls or manipulative schemes. The analysis also noted that 93% of liquidity pools on Raydium, a major Solana-based decentralized exchange, showed signs of "soft rug pulls."
