Step Finance, the Solana portfolio dashboard behind the STEP token, shut down on February 23-24, 2026, about three weeks after attackers drained 261,854 SOL (about $27 million at the time) from its treasury and fee wallets. STEP fell about 96%, a buyback for holders ran on a January 30, 2026 snapshot, and the token still trades on Solana DEXs with very thin liquidity.
Key Takeaways
- Hack: January 31, 2026; 261,854 SOL taken from treasury and fee wallets (CoinDesk).
- Closure: Step Finance, SolanaFloor and Remora Markets wound down in February 2026.
- Buyback: based on STEP and xSTEP balances on January 30, 2026; the claims site no longer resolves (checked October 23, 2026).
- STEP today: about $0.000115, market cap near $38,000, 24-hour volume about $29 (LI.FI token data, October 23, 2026).
- Selling: possible on Solana, but large amounts lose several percent to price impact.
What Was Step Finance?
Step Finance was a portfolio tracker and transaction aggregator for Solana, launched in 2021. It showed wallet positions across Solana protocols in one dashboard, routed token swaps through Jupiter and let holders stake STEP into xSTEP, which received a share of protocol revenue. The same team ran SolanaFloor, a Solana news outlet, and Remora Markets, a platform for tokenized stocks.
STEP was the governance token. It reached an all-time high of $10.20 on April 28, 2021.
What Happened: the January 2026 Hack
On January 31, 2026, attackers gained access to treasury and fee wallets of Step Finance and withdrew 261,854 SOL. CoinDesk valued it at about $27 million; The Block reported total treasury losses of about $40 million (The Block). The team said the attack used “a well-known attack vector”, and reports tied it to compromised devices used by members of the executive team rather than a smart contract bug.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan 30, 2026 | Snapshot of STEP and xSTEP balances later used for the buyback |
| Jan 31, 2026 | Treasury and fee wallets drained, 261,854 SOL |
| Early Feb 2026 | About $4.7 million recovered (Cointelegraph) |
| Feb 23-24, 2026 | Step Finance, SolanaFloor and Remora Markets end operations |
| Mar 20, 2026 | Kraken suspends STEP deposits and trading |
| Jun 19-29, 2026 | Kraken liquidates remaining STEP balances (Kraken) |
The team said it had explored financing and acquisition offers before deciding to close. The attack hit wallets controlled by the project. STEP that users held in their own wallets stayed there, but lost most of its value.
The STEP Buyback: How It Worked
The recovery plan was a buyback for STEP holders based on balances in the January 30, 2026 snapshot, the day before the hack. Holders of STEP and xSTEP verified their snapshot wallets and submitted one Solana payout address on claims.step.finance, which was announced to stay open for about a month.
On October 23, 2026 the domain claims.step.finance did not resolve in DNS. If you did not file a claim during the window, there is no official way left to join the buyback. Be careful with sites, bots or direct messages that offer a “STEP claim” now: closed projects are a common lure for wallet drainers.
What Is STEP Worth Now?
STEP is still an SPL token on Solana (mint StepAscQoEioFxxWGnh2sLBDFp9d8rvKz2Yp39iDpyT), so it can still be swapped on decentralized exchanges. The market is very small.
| Metric (LI.FI, Oct 23, 2026) | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | about $0.000115 |
| Market cap | about $38,000 |
| 24-hour volume | about $29 |
| Peak price (Apr 28, 2021) | $10.20 |
We requested live swap quotes from LI.FI on October 23, 2026 to see how much a holder actually receives:
| You swap | Value at market price | You receive (USDC) | Loss to price impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 STEP | $11.54 | $11.55 | about 0% |
| 1,000,000 STEP | $115.43 | $114.59 | about 0.7% |
| 10,000,000 STEP | $1,154.25 | $1,068.34 | about 7.4% |
Small balances swap close to market price. Above a few hundred dollars, split the swap into parts or accept a lower rate. Quotes change every minute; the widget on this page shows the current one before you sign.
What to Do If You Still Hold STEP
- Check where your STEP is. Tokens on an exchange that delisted STEP may already have been converted or written off. Tokens in your own Solana wallet are still yours.
- Unstake xSTEP if it is still staked, using only the official contract or a wallet that shows the position; do not connect to new “migration” sites.
- Decide: hold or swap. There is no protocol behind STEP any more, so any price move is speculation.
- Swap in parts if the amount is large, and set slippage so a bad quote fails instead of filling.
To swap, you need a Solana wallet with a little SOL for fees. Gem Wallet is an open-source, self-custodial wallet with built-in swaps on Solana (Jupiter and other providers) across 100+ blockchains, so you can move STEP, SOL and USDC in one app; Phantom and Solflare also work. More on wallets: Step wallet guide.
Limits and Risks
- Step Exchange is not Step Finance. This site is an independent cross-chain swap service and has no connection to Step Finance, its team or the buyback.
- No recovery promises. We cannot check snapshot balances or file claims for anyone.
- Thin liquidity. A swap of thousands of dollars in STEP moves the price; the quote above is not a guarantee.
- Scams. Ignore anyone asking for your seed phrase or a “fee” to release STEP compensation.
Other Step Tokens
“Step” names more than one project. Step App (FITFI) was a move-to-earn fitness app that shut down in August 2026: see Step App and FITFI shutdown. For the history of this domain, see Step Exchange: from StepEx to cross-chain swaps.
Related: swap SOL to USDC, what is slippage in crypto, token approvals explained.
