Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift Protocol has shared the highly anticipated user recovery plan alongside Tether and other collaborators. This move follows the major exploit that drained $285 million from the project\u2019s vaults two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Drift Protocol, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on the Solana blockchain, announced a collaboration with Tether and other partners to establish a \u201cstructured recovery plan backed by up to nearly $150 million in combined support\u201d and relaunch with USDT \u201cat the center.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the announcement<\/a>, the funds include a $100 million revenue-linked credit line, an ecosystem grant, and loans to market makers, all intended to finance a dedicated user recovery pool.<\/p>\n As NewsBTC reported<\/a>, the Solana-based DEX suffered an exploit that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from its vaults on April 1. The attack took around $285 million in multiple crypto assets and became the largest exploit of 2026 to date.<\/p>\n During the initial phase of the collaboration, a significant portion of exchange revenue, together with committed support capital, will be intended to fund this recovery pool, Drift explained, noting that any stolen funds recovered would be contributed to the pool.<\/p>\n In addition, Drift revealed that it will issue a new token for the affected users to \u201cstreamline distribution of recovery assets as well as provide liquidity opportunities for impacted users.\u201d<\/p>\n The token will be a dedicated recovery token, separate from the DRIFT governance token, that is intended to represent a claim on the recovery pool and will be transferable.<\/p>\n The Solana-based project shared that it will harden its security, passing each component through independent audits by OtterSec and Asymmetric Research before relaunching the protocol.<\/p>\n It will also introduce a new community-governed multisig to manage core protocol assets, requiring all multisig signers to operate on dedicated signing devices with transaction content independently verified outside the primary signing interface before any signature is executed.<\/p>\n This aims to prevent similar attacks<\/a> on the project. It\u2019s worth noting that the malicious actors gained unauthorized access to Drift Protocol by manipulating its multisig approvals using Solana durable nonces.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attack involved unauthorized or misrepresented transaction approvals obtained prior to execution, likely facilitated through durable nonce mechanisms and sophisticated social engineering,\u201d the project explained on its first report.<\/p>\n Since then, Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has identified<\/a> multiple indicators suggesting that the exploit is linked to the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK), while Drift has affirmed that the exploit was a six-month operation to infiltrate the protocol\u2019s inner circle and compromise their devices.<\/p>\n USDT Settlements \u2018At The Center\u2019 Of Drift<\/p>\n The project also detailed that it will relaunch with Tether\u2019s USDT for settlements. Tether reportedly proposed to extend a USDT support facility to designated market makers \u201cto reinforce deep, liquid markets from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDrift\u2019s decision to integrate USD\u20ae into the relaunch and recovery of a major trading venue on Solana reinforces Tether\u2019s role as a reliable settlement asset within the Solana ecosystem,\u201d Tether stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shift from USDC to USDT settlement represents a significant change, following Circle\u2019s decision<\/a> not to freeze the stolen USDC during the initial attack.<\/p>\n Notably, the exploiter swapped $270.9 million of the stolen assets into USDC within hours, bridged them from Solana to Ethereum via the CCTP TokenMessengerMinterV2, and purchased 129,000 ETH, splitting them across multiple wallets.<\/p>\nSolana DEX Eyes Hardened Security Framework<\/h2>\n