Solana DeFi platform Step Finance to close operations following treasury hack

The Solana (SOL)- based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Step Finance announced it will end all operations effective immediately following a breach that drained its treasury.

Step Finance to shut down following security breach

Step Finance (STEP), a DeFi platform on the Solana blockchain, announced in an X post on Monday that it would immediately wind down all operations. The shutdown includes its subordinate platform for news and analytics, SolanaFloor, as well as the tokenized equities trading platform Remora Markets.

The team explained that the decision follows a security breach of its treasury wallets on January 31, which resulted in the loss of roughly 261,854 SOL tokens, worth $29 million at the time.

Despite recovery efforts, the incident severely impacted the company's financial position.

"Following the hack at the end of January we explored every possible path forward, including financing and acquisition opportunities. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a viable outcome and have made the difficult decision to end all operations effective immediately," wrote Step Finance.

The Step Finance team stated that they are working on a buyback program for STEP holders, based on a "snapshot prior to the incident." The initiative is designed to compensate eligible STEP holders using historical balances recorded before the disruption. In addition, Step Finance confirmed that a separate redemption process is being developed for Remora token holders.

It emphasized that Remora tokens remain fully backed at 1:1, ensuring that the underlying assets supporting them remain intact.

"We are currently working on a redemption process to allow holders to redeem their tokens for USDC, and will share full details shortly," wrote Remora Markets.

STEP, the native token for Step Finance, saw a 37% drop following the announcement, stretching its losses to nearly 97%.