Drift Protocol Suffers $280M Loss Due to Highly Coordinated Exploit

Drift Protocol, a decentralized exchange (DEX), has suffered a substantial loss of $280 million due to an exploit that took months to prepare. According to the company's preliminary investigation, the attack was a highly coordinated effort involving individuals who posed as quantitative trading firms at a major crypto conference in October 2025.

The malicious actors continued to engage with Drift contributors over six months, gaining their trust and eventually accessing the protocol. They used shared malicious links and tools to compromise devices and execute the exploit, which resulted in the significant loss of funds.

Drift has suggested that the individuals behind the attack may be linked to a previous hack of Radiant Capital in October 2024. However, they have emphasized that the actors were not North Korean nationals but rather third-party intermediaries.