Alpha Finance Lab no longer operates under that name. The ALPHA token now belongs to Stella, a leveraged-strategies protocol run by the same founding team. As of October 2026, Stella's own staking page says the project is "transitioning to LitLayer", which it calls a perpetual abstraction protocol. The project was renamed Alpha Venture DAO in March 2022 and then Stella in 2023. Its best-known product, Alpha Homora, lost about $37 million in a February 2021 exploit. The bad debt from that exploit was still being disputed with its lender, Iron Bank, in 2023. One practical warning: alphafinance.io is no longer the project's site. In October 2026 it carries a market-data terminal that says it "is not affiliated with Alpha Finance Lab or Alpha Venture DAO."
Latest: Stella's staking page points to LitLayer
The staking site at staking.stellaxyz.io says Stella is transitioning to LitLayer. It also says incentives for ALPHA stakers "will be disclosed soon". It gives no reward rate, no unbonding period and no dates. The page sends questions to the project's Telegram group.
The plan goes back to a June 2024 proposal on Stella's governance forum to turn Stella from a leverage app into "an omni-chain leverage infrastructure protocol" named LitLayer. Under that proposal ALPHA would migrate 1:1 to a new LTLY token with a 3 billion maximum supply, of which 1 billion is reserved for ALPHA holders. The transition was put to a community vote, and the staking page still describes it as under way.
The main Stella app (app.stellaxyz.io) still shows "Strategy" and "Lend" tabs and an Arbitrum network badge.
The name changes, dated
| Date | Event | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Alpha Finance Lab founded; ALPHA token issued | Company database, token listings |
| 13 Feb 2021 | Alpha Homora V2 exploited for "over $37 million" through Cream's Iron Bank | News report |
| 31 Mar 2022 | Rebranded as Alpha Venture DAO | Secondary reports |
| 1–2 Mar 2023 | Iron Bank freezes Alpha Homora's lending accounts over bad debt | News report |
| 22 Jun 2023 | Stella launched on Arbitrum | Stella team's Arbitrum grant proposal |
| 2023 | Alpha Venture DAO rebranded to Stella; ticker stays ALPHA | CoinGecko, Arbitrum forum |
| Jun 2024 | Proposal to transition Stella to LitLayer | Stella governance forum |
| Oct 2026 | Stella staking page states transition to LitLayer | Project page |
What ALPHA is today
According to CoinGecko:
- Name and ticker: Stella (ALPHA), formerly Alpha Finance Lab and Alpha Venture DAO
- Maximum and total supply: 1,000,000,000 ALPHA
- Contracts:
0xa1faa113cbe53436df28ff0aee54275c13b40975on both Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain; separate contracts on Avalanche and Energi - Mining: none; ALPHA is a token, not a mined coin
Use the contract address to check that a token is the real ALPHA. Tokens with similar names exist, and the old domain now belongs to an unrelated business.
For live price and market capitalisation, see a market data aggregator.
Is the ALPHA token or link in front of you the real one?
Answer a few questions about where you found an ALPHA token or link to see what the article says about it.
Where did you find it?
- On alphafinance.io → Not the project's site
- On a site offering an ALPHA to LTLY "migration" → next question
- As a token in a wallet or token listing → next question
Can you trace the migration site to stellaxyz.io?
- Yes, it is on stellaxyz.io → Traced, but the migration is still unconfirmed
- No, or I am not sure → Be wary of this site
Which network is the token on?
- Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain → next question
- Avalanche or Energi → Check the network's own contract
- Another network → Not a network the article lists
Does its contract address match 0xa1faa113cbe53436df28ff0aee54275c13b40975?
- Yes, exactly → Address matches the listed contract
- No, it differs → Not the listed ALPHA contract
alphafinance.io is no longer the project's site. In October 2026 it carries a market-data terminal that says it is not affiliated with Alpha Finance Lab or Alpha Venture DAO. The project is now Stella, at stellaxyz.io.
The staking page at staking.stellaxyz.io says Stella is transitioning to LitLayer and that incentives for ALPHA stakers "will be disclosed soon". The reported 1:1 move to LTLY comes only from news reports, the original forum posts return "not found", and no confirmation was found that a migration has happened.
The article warns to be wary of any "migration" site you cannot trace to stellaxyz.io. The reported 1:1 move to LTLY is not confirmed by a live primary source.
CoinGecko lists separate ALPHA contracts on Avalanche and Energi. The article does not print those addresses, so compare the token against CoinGecko's Stella (ALPHA) page.
CoinGecko lists ALPHA on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche and Energi. Tokens with similar names exist, so treat a token on another network as unverified.
0xa1faa113cbe53436df28ff0aee54275c13b40975 is the ALPHA contract CoinGecko lists on both Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain. The token is now named Stella (ALPHA), with a maximum and total supply of 1,000,000,000.
The address differs from the one CoinGecko lists on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain. Tokens with similar names exist, so the article treats the contract address as the way to check for the real ALPHA.
This checks only where a token or link comes from against the article's October 2026 findings. It does not cover price, staking rewards, whether a migration has happened, or the status of funds frozen at Iron Bank.
How Stella works
The Stella team's September 2023 grant proposal to the Arbitrum DAO describes the protocol this way:
- Stella Strategy: leveraged positions in yield strategies. At launch these were concentrated-liquidity pools and fixed-yield principal-token (PT) pools.
- Stella Lend: lenders supply the capital that leveraged users borrow.
- "0% cost to borrow" (pay-as-you-earn): borrowers, whom Stella calls "leveragoors", pay no interest while a position is open. They "only pay a portion of their profitable positions upon closing", and an unprofitable position pays no borrowing cost. That profit share is what lenders earn.
The practical consequence for lenders: yield arrives only when borrowers close profitable positions. While many positions stay open, or close at a loss, lenders earn little. Leveraged positions can still be liquidated, so "no interest" does not mean "no risk".
The same proposal named the team as Tascha (founder, project lead) and Nipun (founder, tech and research lead). It reported a peak TVL of $1.98 million in Stella's first 14 weeks on Arbitrum.
Alpha Homora: the product that defined ALPHA
Alpha Homora was a leveraged yield-farming protocol. Users borrowed extra capital to enlarge a liquidity-providing or farming position beyond what their own funds allowed. Gains and losses grow by the same factor, and a leveraged liquidity position can be liquidated like a leveraged trade.
The February 2021 exploit
On 13 February 2021 an attacker drained "over $37 million" from Alpha Homora V2. According to Cointelegraph, the attacker repeatedly borrowed and lent through Cream's Iron Bank, using a flash loan. Halborn's analysis describes a custom malicious "spell" contract and a rounding error in debt repayment that let the attacker build borrow positions with no recorded debt. Alpha said the loophole was patched. The attacker sent 1,000 ETH each to the Alpha and Iron Bank deployer addresses.
The V2 contract repository lists audits by Quantstamp and PeckShield. The exploit happened despite those audits.
The Iron Bank dispute (2023)
On 1 March 2023 Iron Bank froze Alpha Homora's lending accounts. It said Alpha Homora had failed to top up collateral against $30 million of bad debt from the 2021 exploit (The Block). Rekt News, citing Iron Bank, put the original loss at $32.4 million, with $31.9 million still owed. Alpha Homora accused Iron Bank of "acting unilaterally and misappropriating user funds". It said it had agreed to service the debt with 20% of protocol fees. Collateral of 50 million ALPHA was worth about $6.6 million at the time.
In the Arbitrum forum in late 2023, the Stella team said Stella runs on new contracts that the freeze does not affect. It said user funds stuck in Iron Bank were the subject of a legal case and that a goodwill fund had been set up.
What the original ALPHA token was meant to do
The original ALPHA token was planned for staking rewards (fees and tokens from projects launched through the Alpha ecosystem), liquidity-mining incentives and governance. Several of those functions were never fully live under the Alpha brand, and the project has changed its name and product twice since. Treat any utility claim as current only if the project's own live pages confirm it today.
Risks specific to ALPHA
- Product and identity changes: two rebrands in under two years, plus an announced move to LitLayer with no published timeline.
- Token migration: the proposed 1:1 move to LTLY would replace the token itself. Be wary of any "migration" site you cannot trace to stellaxyz.io.
- Smart-contract history: the 2021 exploit happened after audits, and the resulting debt was still disputed in 2023.
- Old links: the former official domain and whitepaper links in older guides lead to unrelated or outdated pages.
