Drift Protocol has rebranded to Velocity DEX as it prepares to relaunch after an April exploit that drained more than $280 million. The relaunch is backed by a $127.5 million commitment from Tether, with USDT replacing USDC as the platform’s core stablecoin. Affected users hold recovery tokens which can be redeemed once the growing pool hits $5 million.
Drift Protocol’s Solana-based perpetual futures exchange was offline since April 1 after attackers compromised multisig wallets and drained assets across 31 transactions in roughly 12 minutes. The attack was linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group by blockchain investigators and security firms.
Eleven DeFi protocols that used Drift for yield or vault strategies had funds stolen or frozen, including Pyra and DeFi Carrot.
Drift Protocol announced it was rebranding to Velocity DEX via its official X account, now operating under the handle @VelocityDEX. “Our new name reflects the new and improved platform that we are building,” the team wrote.
The company struck a deal with Tether, committing approximately $127.5 million to support the relaunch. As part of the agreement, the exchange is switching its core stablecoin from Circle’s USDC to Tether’s USDT, affecting its 128,000 users and more than 35 ecosystem teams.
USDT will replace USDC on the platform as its core stablecoin, with a large portion of the funding dedicated to stabilization and relaunch efforts. The announcement notes the commitment will back the relaunch and ongoing operations.
Data from DefiLlama shows Drift’s total value locked (TVL) at approximately $217 million, down from more than $550 million before the exploit. The DRIFT token trades near $0.017, close to its all-time low. Perp volume and DEX volume have been at zero since the platform went offline, but annualized fee revenue is about $35 million based on prior activity.
The relaunch includes a plan to rebuild with USDT as the core stablecoin and a recovery fund intended to compensate affected users over time. The platform has been offline since April 1, and the recovery pool is intended to reach $5 million to unlock token redemptions, with ongoing funding from revenue and partners.
The Velocity DEX engineer using the handle on X said the Tether deal is not a bailout, noting, “Tether wants a top perp exchange running on USDT,” but did not disclose terms of the agreement.
