Shutdown vs bankruptcy: Why crypto investors should care (2:49)
Step Finance, the decentralized finance (DeFi) dashboard once described as the “front page of Solana,” has announced it will wind down all operations following a $26 million hack earlier this year.
In a statement posted on X on Feb. 23, the team behind Step Finance, SolanaFloor, and Remora Markets said it had explored “every possible path forward, including financing and acquisition opportunities,” but ultimately failed to secure a viable outcome.
The team added that buyback and redemption plans are now underway.
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Treasury wallets compromised in January breach
The shutdown traces back to Jan. 31, when Step Finance disclosed that several treasury and fee wallets had been compromised by what it described as a “sophisticated actor."
“Immediate remediation steps have been taken, and we are working closely with top security professionals. We have notified the relevant authorities,” the team said at the time.
Founded in 2021, Step Finance aggregated liquidity pool (LP) tokens, yield farms and user positions across roughly 95% of Solana-based protocols into a single dashboard. At its peak, the platform reported around 300,000 monthly users.
However, as DeFi activity cooled on Solana (SOL) and across other networks, the cost of maintaining complex data infrastructure became unsustainable. Ultimately, the $26 million hack proved to be the final straw.
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From DeFi dashboard to full shutdown
Step Group had begun restructuring even before the breach.
In a Nov. 5 announcement, the company said it had shut down its main Step Finance dashboard to focus on its Solana-focused media outlet, SolanaFloor, and its trading platform, Remora Markets.
Remora itself was born from a December 2024 acquisition of early-stage startup Moose Capital. After rebranding, Remora Markets aimed to bring tokenized stock trading — including major firms like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) — onto the Solana network.
However, the January hack messed up those plans.
"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," a part of the latest statement read.
The team also mentioned that it is working on a buyback for STEP token holders based on a snapshot taken before the incident, alongside a redemption process for Remora rToken holders. It emphasized that Remora tokens remain backed 1:1.
In closing, the company thanked its “millions of customers over the years” for their support, describing the shutdown as “the best outcome given the circumstances.”
Related: Another blockchain platform shuts down after market crunch