Relaunches as Velocity After $295M Exploit
Drift Protocol (DRIFT) · Releases & Updates · September 21, 2026
Drift Protocol, rebranded as Velocity, relaunched as a security-first perps exchange with Velocity Beta opening to everyone on September 21, 2026, after its $295M DPRK-linked April 1 exploit, backed by a $150M Tether-led recovery plan and full protocol rebuild.
Drift Protocol, formerly Solana's largest DeFi exchange, was drained of $295M on April 1, 2026 by a North Korea state-linked group (confirmed by Mandiant) that spent 6 months infiltrating the team via a fake quant firm. Attackers exploited Solana's durable nonce feature to pre-sign malicious transactions. The relaunch slipped from its June 2026 target: Drift rebranded to Velocity on July 1, 2026, opened a private beta on July 13, completed its OtterSec audit and open-sourced the code on September 16, and opened Velocity Beta to everyone on September 21 as a leaner, perps-only exchange with USDT settlement. Tether leads a $150M recovery package ($100M credit facility, $27.5M ecosystem grant, $20M market-making facility) to fund impacted user recovery tokens.
- OtterSec security audit completed and code open-sourced on September 16, ahead of the public beta - New architecture: fresh program address, rotated keys, community multisig, durable nonces removed entirely - Recovery tokens issued 1:1 to verified user losses ($295.4M total), redeemable from the recovery pool over time; claims will follow the public launch - Tether contributes $127.5M to recovery pool; additional partners $20M; pool grows via exchange revenue