Drift Secures $148 Million in Funding from Tether and Partners to Recover from Massive Exploit

Following a significant exploit, Drift Protocol has announced plans to relaunch using Tether's USDT as its primary settlement layer, after securing a substantial funding package of up to $147.5 million from Tether and its partners. This deal comprises $127.5 million from Tether and $20 million from other partners, aimed at supporting user recovery and rebooting the platform as a USDT-based perpetual futures exchange on Solana. Previously, the platform relied on Circle's USDC as its settlement layer. The rescue package includes a revenue-linked credit facility, ecosystem grants, and loans to market makers, with a portion of trading revenue and committed capital allocated to a recovery pool to cover approximately $295 million in user losses over time. The funding comes after a North Korea-linked group infiltrated Drift Protocol, resulting in losses exceeding $270 million on April 1. Drift's governance token, DRIFT, has since lost around 70% of its value. Circle faced criticism for not halting the money transfer after the exploit, allowing the attacker to move about $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum. In contrast, Tether has a history of freezing assets linked to hacks or illicit activities. As the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Solana, Drift boasts over 175,000 users and roughly $150 billion in cumulative trading volume. The platform's transition to USDT is expected to position Tether at the center of its trading infrastructure, providing a pathway to restore user funds and resume operations.