Drift Secures $148 Million in Funding to Recover from Exploit and Switch to USDT

Following a significant exploit, Drift Protocol has announced plans to relaunch with Tether's USDT as its settlement layer, backed by a substantial funding package of up to $147.5 million from Tether and its partners. This deal is structured to facilitate user recovery and reboot the platform as a USDT-based perpetual futures exchange on Solana. The package combines a revenue-linked credit facility, ecosystem grants, and loans to market makers, with a portion of trading revenue dedicated to covering roughly $295 million in user losses over time. The exploit, linked to a North Korea-based group, resulted in losses exceeding $270 million and prompted criticism of Circle for not freezing funds. In contrast, Tether has demonstrated its ability to freeze assets linked to illicit activities. Drift, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Solana, aims to restore user funds and resume operations with USDT at the core of its trading infrastructure.