Stars Arena boosts Avalanche price but gains could be limited

Avalanche (AVAX) price was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in the market this week. The coin jumped to a high of $10.6 on Friday, the highest point since August 30th. It soared by more than 22% from the lowest point in September.

The main catalyst for the Avalanche price surge is the ongoing hype surrounding Stars Arena, a new socialFi platform. Stars Arena was inspired by the success of Friend.tech, the socialFi platform in Base Blockchain.

Data compiled by DappRadar shows that Stars Arena has become the most popular dAppp in Avalanche’s ecosystem. Its volume has jumped by more than 248% in the past 24 hours to over $3.86 million. The number of unique active wallets (UAW) in the ecosystem jumped to more than 21k.

Stars Arena’s strong performance has helped ameliorate some of the pain in Avalanche’s ecosystem. For example, Stargate Finance active wallets dropped by more than 40% while Trader Joe, WOOFI, and Move Stake has crashed by over 30%. 

AVAX has also done well even after Stars Arena reported an attempted exploit in the ecosystem. In a statement, the developers noted that the developers were attempting to drain $1 million by spending just $5 on the platform.

Exploits in the DeFi ecosystem have been growing in the past few years. For example, an exploit drained $1 million from Level Finance in May and $7.4 million from Hundred Finance. 

Other platforms that fell victim to hackers were Yearn Finance ($11 million), Sushi ($200 million), and Safemoon ($200 million). Therefore, another attempt to drain funds from Stars Arena cannot be ruled out.

It is difficult to predict whether the Avalanche price will continue soaring because of Stars Arena. Historically, cryptocurrencies jump during the hype period and then fizzle down as the momentum fades. Avalanche has gone through a difficult time in the past few months as the total value locked (TVL) in its ecosystem dropped from over $23 billion to $1.5 billion. The biggest players in the ecosystem are Volta Club, Aave, Benqi, GMX, and Trader Joe.