Saudi AI, Blockchain and Web3 entertainment and infrastructure firm Astra Nova has raised $48.3 million which it will utilize to expand its suite of creator platforms and tokenized content tools, yet loses $10 million from market maker hack, pledging to buy back tokens.
Asta Nova was part of the Outlier Ventures cohort in Saudi Arabia. Astra Nova was initially incubated by The Hashgraph Association and received investments of $1 million from Oxbull, MoonEdge, Vision, Kanga, Spicy Capital, Equinox, BTS Labs, Sensei Capital and various MENA Investors from KSA, Dubai & Oman. The Hashgraph Association has provided a $100,000 grant to AstraNova through its innovation program designed to promote the development on the Hedera platform.
Astra Nova develops tools that let creators launch interactive blockchain-based experiences without technical expertise. Its flagship, TokenPlay AI, is a no-code tool for building mini-apps. Additionally, it is powered by Alibaba Cloud which enables communities to quickly spin up interactive utilities.
Astra Nova plans to expand into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia while preparing for regulatory compliance. Its partnerships include NEOM, NVIDIA Inception, and Alibaba Cloud which seek to support growth and adoption.
Yet soon after the $48.3 million, one of its MM accounts (3rd party) was compromised, and a malicious actor gained control and began liquidating assets.
Astra Nova in an X post stated, “The Malicious Wallet – 0x643F901793A5f6Fb4DE51658CD152AdA3b88178C We detected this immediately and are taking all necessary steps: All exchange partners have been informed. Our smart contracts and infrastructure remain completely secure and fully audited. We are working with on-chain forensics to trace the breach and will involve law enforcement once evidence collection is complete. The Astra Nova ecosystem remains strong, and we’re committed to handling this responsibly and transparently.”
The suspected attacker dumped about 8.6% of the token’s supply on the open market, swapping the tokens for about $10.2 million worth of Tether’s USDT stablecoin, according to blockchain analyst EmberCN.
“These 860 million $RVV were sold for 10.288 million USDT, of which 8.226 million USDT was transferred to Gate and Kucoin, while another 2.041 million USDT remains in the on-chain wallet 0x643,” EmberCN
The mass sale caused the price of the token, which launched on October 18th, to plummet from as high as $0.028 before the incident to a low of $0.007, before rebounding to its current price of about $0.014, according to GeckoTerminal data, a drop of around 50%.
Astra Nova has buyed back a total of 200 million $RVV tokens, repurchased from the market. As per the X post today, Astra Nova stated, “To ensure complete transparency, these tokens will be held in a public wallet for community verification & used exclusively for community rewards. Balances in this wallet – 0xcFe595639980c80F5d9D138D88e12e978F06feA5 Balance: 200,157,583 RVV For us, community trust means everything, and we’ll always do what’s right to protect our holders and strengthen the Astra Nova ecosystem.”
