Drift's hacking recovery plan! Funded by Tether with over $120 million, announces abandonment of USDC in favor of USDT

Drift Protocol announces a $150 million recovery plan, led by Tether and fully settled using $USDT . This move aims to address the $295 million loss caused by North Korean hackers.

Strategic Shift in Relaunch Operations and Settlement Assets

Solana’s largest decentralized perpetual contract exchange, Drift Protocol, announced yesterday (4/16) a comprehensive recovery plan totaling $150 million, designed to respond to the $295 million asset loss resulting from a North Korean hacker attack in early April.

Image source: X/@DriftProtocol Drift Protocol announced yesterday a $150 million comprehensive recovery plan

Supported by stablecoin leader Tether, which contributed up to $127.5 million, with the remaining $20 million raised jointly by several unnamed ecosystem partners. This relaunch plan signifies a major infrastructure overhaul for Drift, as the platform has decided to fully abandon Circle-issued $USDC and switch to Tether’s $USDT as the core settlement asset. This move not only addresses the immediate financial crisis but also demonstrates Tether’s strategic ambition to challenge $USDC ’s long-standing dominance on the Solana network.

According to the signed agreement, this $150 million fund is not a one-time cash injection but a combination of future revenue-linked credit lines, ecosystem-specific grants, and liquidity loans to market makers. This multi-layered funding structure aims to ensure the platform, once back online, has deep trading liquidity and stable operational resources, while positioning $USDT as the operational core of the entire trading system.

• Related news: DeFi platform Drift hacked on April Fools’ Day! Hackers drain $270 million in assets, admin keys become a vulnerability

Innovative Recovery Mechanism and Compensation Token Plan

For the severely affected 128k users, Drift has planned a long-term asset recovery mechanism, primarily aimed at gradually compensating for the $295 million lost in the hacker incident. The platform will establish a dedicated “Recovery Pool,” funded by a portion of future trading fees, committed capital from partners, and any stolen assets recovered through law enforcement or on-chain tracking.

To provide users with liquidity and ownership rights, Drift plans to issue a new, transferable recovery token to affected KOLs. This token, independent of the original governance token $DRIFT , represents the holder’s claim on assets in the recovery pool. Users can choose to hold it long-term, receiving payouts as platform revenue flows into the recovery pool, or sell it on the secondary market for early access to funds. This plan reflects Drift’s long-term commitment to the community, emphasizing that restoring user trust is the top priority after relaunch.

Drift CEO stated that this system allows compensation progress to be linked to the platform’s actual operational performance, ensuring user rights are protected without imposing a destructive burden on platform growth.

Hack Penetration and Comprehensive Defense System Upgrade

Investigation reports indicate that the attack causing asset loss was not accidental but a carefully planned infiltration by a North Korean government-funded hacking group, lasting over six months. The attackers disguised themselves as professional quantitative traders, gaining trust through participation in physical meetings and social engineering. They further exploited malicious TestFlight applications and software vulnerabilities to infiltrate core contributors’ devices, ultimately gaining control of multisignature wallets.

During the attack on April 1, hackers drained assets stored in the core vault within a short period, causing $DRIFT token prices to plummet over 70%. To learn from this and eliminate security risks, Drift has implemented strict security upgrades before relaunch, including independent audits by top security firms OtterSec and Asymmetric Research.

• Related news: Drift hacker case: North Korean hackers infiltrated for 6 months, creating the biggest DeFi theft in spring 2026

The platform after relaunch will introduce a new multi-signature governance system, where all signatures must be completed on dedicated isolated hardware devices, with independent content verification outside the trading interface. This enhanced security process aims to minimize risks of human infiltration and device poisoning through physical isolation and multiple verifications, establishing industry-leading security defenses.

Stablecoin Landscape Reorganization and Circle Trust Crisis

This asset transfer move by Drift has also sparked in-depth discussions within the crypto industry about the responsibilities of stablecoin issuers. After the attack, hackers used Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) to move about $232 million of $USDC from Solana to Ethereum over a six-hour window for money laundering. On-chain data shows that despite the opportunity to intervene during this half-day window, Circle failed to freeze the stolen funds promptly, drawing strong criticism from community members including well-known investigator ZachXBT.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire reiterated the company’s stance, emphasizing that they only freeze assets upon receiving official law enforcement orders, to comply with legal and regulatory standards and protect user rights. In contrast, Tether demonstrated a more proactive intervention efficiency in handling hackers and illicit funds, which became a key factor in Drift’s decision to switch to $USDT .

Further reading
Who’s to blame for Drift being hacked? Hackers cross-chain assets but no freeze, ZachXBT criticizes Circle’s negligence
Slow USDC freezing criticized! Circle CEO: Only freeze upon court order, refuse to freeze privately

Currently, although $USDC still holds a leading market cap on Solana, the defection of high-volume platforms like Drift and Tether’s active resource injections into user rewards have caused a fundamental shift in stablecoin competition on Solana. This incident not only led Circle to face class-action lawsuits but also prompted the market to reevaluate the role of stablecoin issuers as gatekeepers in decentralized finance environments.