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Solana-based Drift Protocol was hacked on April 1, with $295 million in user funds drained by attackers linked to North Korea. Drift has now released a detailed recovery plan that outlines how it will compensate affected wallets and relaunch the exchange with a rebuilt security framework.
The April 1 incident was attributed to a North Korea state-affiliated threat actor, according to forensic firm Mandiant. After the exploit, Drift temporarily suspended all core protocol functions, including trading and borrowing, to prevent further unauthorized activity.
Drift says approximately 130,259 ETH—worth roughly $293 million today—remains concentrated across four Ethereum wallets that are actively monitored and flagged across exchanges. Two additional transfers made via the Wormhole bridge have been delayed by that protocol’s governor until late July, effectively locking funds in transit.
In addition, three stablecoin transfers have been frozen by Circle, totaling $3.36 million worth of USDC.
To compensate victims, Drift plans to issue each affected wallet a “recovery token,” where each token represents $1 of verified loss. The recovery pool will be seeded with the protocol’s remaining assets—about $3.8 million converted to stablecoins—and is expected to grow through quarterly exchange revenue.
Drift also has external funding commitments: Tether has committed up to $127.5 million in recovery funds, and strategic partners have pledged an additional $20 million.
Users can begin redeeming their tokens once the recovery fund exceeds $5 million. Drift notes that early redemption would forfeit any future claims on the pool. The pool will continue growing until total inflows match the full $295,426,725.97 in exploit losses.
Drift says it will deploy an entirely new program at a fresh address with fully rotated keys. It also plans to implement timelocks on sensitive administrative operations and remove the durable-nonce attack surface that was central to how the April 1 exploit was executed.
The exchange is targeting a relaunch in Q2 2026 as a leaner, perps-native exchange. Drift says it will be supported by leading market makers and a $20 million Tether market-making facility intended to provide liquidity from day one.
Drift has also launched a public bounty program in collaboration with crypto exchange Bybit, offering 10% of any successfully recovered assets.
“The Drift team is taking considered measures to ensure that users are made whole, and that Drift restores itself as the leading perpetuals DEX on Solana,” the exchange wrote. “The team has made internal hard decisions to restructure and operate as lean as possible, focusing entirely on recovery and relaunch. This will take time but the structure is in place, ecosystem partners are committed, and the work is underway.”
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