Credit · Leveraged Yield · ALPHA
Stella (formerly Alpha Homora) offers leveraged yield strategies with a pay-as-you-earn borrowing model: borrowers pay 0% interest and instead share a portion of realized profit with lenders.
Pay-as-you-earn leveraged strategies (ex-Alpha Homora).
ALPHA price
$0.0004
+5.5% 24h
Latest data · 15 min delay
Stella is the rebranded continuation of Alpha Finance Lab and Alpha Venture DAO, whose flagship product Alpha Homora was DeFi's first leveraged yield farming protocol, launched in October 2020 (Cointelegraph, May 2021). The rebrand to Stella was announced in May 2023, repositioning the project from a DeFi lab into a single product: leveraged strategies with 0% cost to borrow (Stella rebrand announcement, 23 May 2023). Instead of charging interest, Stella uses a Pay As You Earn model: borrowers, called leveragoors, pay nothing while a position is open, and Stella takes a cut of the net profit only when a profitable position is closed (Stella strategy docs). Of that yield cut, 20% is collected as protocol fees accruing to ALPHA stakers (Stella FAQ). The lineage carries a heavy credit history: a February 2021 exploit of roughly $37.5m drawn from Cream's Iron Bank, and a bad debt dispute that ran into 2023 (Cream Finance post mortem, DL News, 2023).
0% borrow APR: lenders are compensated from strategy profit share rather than interest, aligning incentives between borrowers and lenders.
The leverage side of the protocol. Users ("leveragoors") open leveraged positions on supported DeFi strategies, initially Uniswap V3 concentrated-liquidity pools (e.g. ETH/USDC.e, ETH/USDT, ETH/ARB, WBTC/ETH), borrowing liquidity from Stella Lend at 0% borrowing interest to size up their positions and yields.
The lending side. Capital providers deposit assets into lending pools and earn 'real yield' generated by leveragoors' strategy activity rather than a fixed interest curve. Because returns derive from strategy profits, there is no traditional APY cap.
Stella's core mechanism replacing borrowing-interest accrual. Leveragoors pay 0% cost to borrow for the whole leverage duration; only when a position closes with positive net yield is a portion of that profit deducted as the fee to lenders ('no gain, no pay'), aligning incentives between borrowers and lenders.
Alpha Homora launched October 2020; Stella brand from 23 May 2023; DefiLlama listed the Stella entry in June 2023
Stella rebrand announcementStella Strategy and Stella Lend, following Alpha Homora V1 and V2
Stella strategy docsn.a. No incorporated entity is named on the Stella docs, the blog or the token pages reviewed in this session
Stella docs FAQn.a. Not disclosed; the founding team is Thailand linked via SCB 10X backing and Band Protocol background but no jurisdiction of incorporation is published
Binance Research, Alpha Finance LabALPHA, total supply 1,000,000,000; sALPHA was planned as the staked governance token
Stella token distributionn.a. Kraken's asset statement records that sALPHA governance was "not live yet at the time of writing"; no Snapshot space or Tally instance for Stella was found in this session
Kraken UK crypto asset statement, StellaArbitrum only for TVL purposes; the ALPHA token itself is deployed on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche and Arbitrum
DefiLlama API, stella$442,829, last datapoint 10 June 2026; peak $9,417,976 on 13 March 2024
DefiLlama API, stellaPeckShield and Trust Security for Stella; Alpha Homora V2 had been audited by Quantstamp and PeckShield before the 2021 exploit
Stella audit reportsn.a. No bug bounty program or payout ceiling was found on the Stella docs or on Immunefi in this session
Stella audit reports pagehttps://docs.stellaxyz.io
Stella FAQn.a. No GitHub organisation is linked from the Stella docs pages reviewed
Stella docs FAQClosest analogue
a profit participating margin loan, or a total return swap with no financing leg and a performance fee. The lender is paid only out of realised gains rather than a contractual coupon.
Underwriting
Stella
Collateral only, no borrower assessment; leverage granted against the deposited position
TradFi analogue
Margin lending against eligible collateral
Collateral
Stella
The leveraged strategy position itself is the collateral
TradFi analogue
Pledged securities in a margin account
Settlement
Stella
On chain at position close, when the yield cut is calculated
TradFi analogue
Performance fee crystallisation at redemption
Rate setting
Stella
0% contractual borrow cost; the lender's return is a share of net profit, of which 20% of the yield cut is protocol fee
TradFi analogue
Zero coupon performance participation, similar to a hedge fund incentive fee replacing a management fee
Recourse on default
Stella
Non recourse; historically, where the protocol itself was exploited, the debt was pushed onto a counterparty lender (Iron Bank) and negotiated over years
TradFi analogue
Counterparty credit exposure crystallising into a workout negotiation
Regulation
Stella
n.a. No named entity or regulatory status; Kraken lists ALPHA under a UK crypto asset statement rather than any securities framework
TradFi analogue
Regulated prime brokers must hold client assets under client money rules
Tascha Punyaneramitdee
Co-founder and Project Lead; confirmed as continuing Project Lead after the Stella rebrand
SourcePrivate sale, 133,333,334 ALPHA at $0.0125
Sep 2020$1,670,000
Binance Launchpad public sale, 100,000,000 ALPHA at $0.02
8 Oct 2020$2,000,000
No venture round has been disclosed since 2020 on any page reviewed in this session.
Key milestones: launches, upgrades, exploits and governance events.
Alpha Homora launches on Ethereum as DeFi's first leveraged yield farming product
StatedEstablishes the category the CanHav Leveraged Yield tag describes
SourceAlpha Homora V2 promoted with up to 9x leverage
StatedPeak of the risk appetite immediately before the exploit
SourceExploit drains roughly $37m via a sUSD pool rounding flaw and a custom spell, with funds borrowed from Cream's Iron Bank
StatedOne of the largest DeFi losses of that cycle and the origin of the bad debt dispute
SourceLoopholes closed: only EOAs may call execute, only whitelisted spells, resolveReserve restricted to the governor
StatedShows the specific control failures that allowed the exploit
SourceV2 relaunch with a $100m credit limit; TVL up nearly $100m to $675m
StatedProtocol survived the exploit and rebuilt scale, under a hard cap
SourceRebrand from Alpha Venture DAO to Stella, 0% cost to borrow model announced
StatedStrategic pivot from DeFi lab to a single leverage product
SourceIron Bank pauses Alpha Homora lending accounts over roughly $32m of outstanding debt
StatedCounterparty risk crystallises and public dispute begins
SourceIron Bank publishes a full timeline of the dispute, noting Alpha Homora V2 launched its own money market later rebranded to Stella
StatedIndependent chronology of the workout, from the creditor side
SourceStella TVL peaks at $9,417,976
StatedThe post rebrand product never regained Alpha Homora scale
SourceLast DefiLlama TVL datapoint, $442,829, with zero incentives across all windows
StatedStrong dormancy signal, though not a formal wind down
SourceNo wind down notice was found, and the docs remain live, but DefiLlama shows TVL flat near $443k with a final datapoint of 10 June 2026 and zero incentives (DefiLlama API, stella). The Alpha Venture DAO blog's most recent visible material dates to the May 2023 Iron Bank dispute (Alpha Venture DAO blog). Treat the protocol as functionally dormant with residual deposits.
It ended up on Cream's Iron Bank balance sheet, since the exploiter borrowed through Alpha Homora's privileged access rather than draining Alpha's own reserves (Origin Protocol incident note). Iron Bank paused Alpha Homora's lending accounts in March 2023 over roughly $32m still outstanding, and the two sides disputed the repayment terms publicly (DL News).
Through a share of realised profit. Stella takes a cut of the net yield when a profitable position closes, and 20% of that cut becomes protocol fees accruing to ALPHA stakers (Stella FAQ). If borrowers close flat or at a loss, the lender's realised return from that position is zero.
Two overlapping risks. First, the 2021 precedent: a protocol level exploit that converts lender capital into a multi year negotiated claim rather than an immediate loss (Iron Bank timeline). Second, the academic finding that in Alpha Homora 72.35% of leverage taking borrowers had a negative APY once governance token incentives are stripped out, which implies weak organic demand for the borrow side that funds lender returns (Wang et al., Speculative Multipliers on DeFi).
Not as documented. Kraken's asset statement records that ALPHA stakers were to receive sALPHA for governance, which was "not live yet at the time of writing" (Kraken UK crypto asset statement, Stella). No Snapshot space or on chain governor for Stella was located in this session.
Alpha Homora liquidated leveraged AMM positions when the collateral ratio breached the threshold, and the empirical record shows 270 of 10,430 analysed positions were liquidated over a nine month window, with the largest single liquidation loss at 10.63% of collateral (Wang et al., Speculative Multipliers on DeFi). Arbitrage loss was a bigger tail risk in some cases, with one position losing 81.67% of collateral (Wang et al.).
Documented claim is a fee stream from Stella activity, but with TVL under half a million dollars that stream is negligible (Stella FAQ, DefiLlama API, stella). Total supply is 1 billion with 15% to team and advisors and 36.67% to ecosystem (Stella token distribution).
Bull case
The 0% borrow cost Pay As You Earn model is genuinely differentiated: borrowers pay only out of realised profit, with 20% of the yield cut becoming protocol fees (Stella FAQ).
Stella FAQThe founding team remained intact through the rebrand, with Tascha, Nipun and Arin all confirmed in place (Stella FAQ).
Stella FAQThe protocol survived a $37m exploit and relaunched to $675m TVL within three months in 2021, which is a demonstrated recovery capability (Cointelegraph).
CointelegraphPost exploit controls were specific and verifiable: EOA-only execute, whitelisted spells, governor-only resolveReserve (Alpha Venture DAO recap).
Alpha Venture DAO recapBear case
TVL of $442,829 with the data series ending 10 June 2026 and zero incentives in every window is consistent with a dormant protocol (DefiLlama API, stella).
DefiLlama API, stellaThe credit record includes a roughly $37m exploit and a roughly $32m bad debt that a counterparty lender had to pause accounts over two years later (Cream Finance post mortem, DL News).
Cream Finance post mortemPeer reviewed analysis of the predecessor product found 72.35% of leveraged borrowers earned a negative APY absent token incentives, undermining the economic case for the borrow side (Wang et al., Speculative Multipliers on DeFi).
Wang et al., Speculative Multipliers on DeFiNo legal entity, no bug bounty, no live governance venue and no public GitHub organisation were identifiable from the protocol's own documentation, which is a governance and disclosure gap (Stella docs FAQ, Kraken UK crypto asset statement, Stella).
Stella docs FAQExternal publications on this protocol: risk assessments, analyst reports, audits and post mortems.
The protocol's own account of the sUSD pool exploit and remediation
Creditor side account showing the funds were drawn from Iron Bank, not Alpha's own reserves
Security firm walkthrough of the rounding error and custom spell attack path
Notes the attacker used Alpha's privileged access to take a large Iron Bank loan
Of 10,430 Alpha Homora positions over 9 months, 1,139 suffered impermanent loss, 270 were liquidated, and 72.35% of borrowers had negative APY excluding token incentives
Creditor chronology of the multi year bad debt workout, noting the Stella rebrand
Reports Iron Bank pausing Alpha Homora accounts over the outstanding debt
Exchange level disclosure confirming tokenomics and that sALPHA governance was not yet live
Shows the decline from a $9.4m peak to roughly $443k with no incentives
