Drift Protocol said it has secured a proposed recovery package of up to $127.5 million from stablecoin giant Tether as it works to compensate users following its April 1 exploit and prepare for a relaunch.
The Solana-based trading platform outlined the plan in a recovery update on Thursday, detailing a broader collaboration that also includes about $20 million from other partners.
The package is structured around a mix of capital and ongoing support. It includes a $100 million revenue-linked credit facility, an ecosystem grant and loans to market makers, with funds directed toward a dedicated recovery pool for affected users.
Drift said the pool is designed to address roughly $295 million in outstanding user losses over time as exchange revenue accrues and any recovered assets are added back.
To distribute claims, the protocol plans to issue a separate recovery token to impacted users.
The token, distinct from the DRIFT governance asset, will represent a claim on the recovery pool and is intended to be transferable. This will allow users to access liquidity ahead of full repayment, according to the incident report released April 16.
Drift’s relaunch will also bring a structural shift in how the platform operates. Per the team, it will move its settlement layer from USDC to USDT, with Tether providing a market-making support facility to help ensure liquidity at launch.
The change lands after a public dispute earlier in the incident, when blockchain investigator ZachXBT criticized Circle for not freezing USDC tied to the exploit quickly enough.
Circle later defended its decision, with CEO Jeremy Allaire pointing to a "moral quandary" and the complexity of intervening in such cases.
Drift’s recovery plan follows one of the largest exploits in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem this year.
The platform initially disclosed losses of at least $200 million, later revising the figure to around $280 million.
Subsequent analysis tied the breach to a sophisticated administrative takeover, which Drift later said was part of a months-long social engineering operation linked to suspected North Korean actors.
A breakdown included in the latest update shows nearly $296 million in assets were withdrawn across a range of tokens, with the largest portion tied to its JLP liquidity pool.
The protocol said it is working with law enforcement and blockchain forensics firms to trace and potentially recover funds, with any recovered assets expected to flow back into the recovery pool.
Alongside the financial package, Drift outlined a full rebuild of its security model. The relaunch will require two independent audits and introduce tighter controls around key management and administrative access, including a new multisig structure and enforced delays on critical actions.
The protocol’s insurance fund, used to cover trading-related losses, was not impacted by the exploit and will remain intact, according to the update.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.