Circle Sued Over Drift Exploit as Grinex Halted Trading Amid Bitcoin Mining Crisis

A major development has hit the cryptocurrency sector as Circle Internet Group faces a class action lawsuit over a recent Drift Protocol breach.

The lawsuit, filed by investor Joshua McCollum, represents more than 100 affected participants and centers on an April 1 breach that resulted in approximately $280 million in losses. According to the complaint, attackers transferred roughly $230 million in USDC across blockchains over several hours using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to route funds from Solana to Ethereum without interruption.

Additionally, Grinex halted trading after a cyberattack resulted in losses exceeding 1 billion rubles (about $13.7 million). The exchange reported that 54 wallets were compromised, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic traced roughly $15 million in USDT leaving the platform.