Drift Protocol Announces $150M Tether-Backed Plan for Relaunch and User Recovery

Lockridge Okoth

Thu, April 16, 2026 astatine 8:24 AM CDT 2 min read

Drift Protocol has announced a collaboration with Tether (USDT) and different partners totaling astir $150 cardinal to money idiosyncratic betterment and a protocol relaunch pursuing its April 1 exploit connected Solana (SOL).

The bundle includes a $100 cardinal revenue-linked recognition facility, an ecosystem grant, and loans to designated marketplace makers. USDT volition service arsenic the colony plus erstwhile the protocol relaunches.

The funds volition enactment a dedicated idiosyncratic betterment excavation fed by speech gross and committed enactment capital. Drift stated that immoderate assets recovered done ongoing instrumentality enforcement and blockchain forensics efforts volition besides travel into the pool.

To administer betterment assets, Drift volition contented a caller transferable token to users affected by the April 1 exploit. The squad said further details connected token mechanics volition travel successful the adjacent term.

The April 1 onslaught drained betwixt $270 cardinal and $285 cardinal from Drift's vaults. Blockchain analytics steadfast Elliptic attributed the cognition to North Korean state-linked actors who spent six months infiltrating the protocol done societal engineering.

Hardened Security and USDT-Centered Relaunch

Before relaunching, each protocol constituent volition walk autarkic audits from OtterSec and Asymmetric Research. Drift volition besides present a community-governed multisig for halfway protocol assets, requiring each signers to usage dedicated devices with transaction contented verified extracurricular the superior signing interface.

Tether has projected extending a USDT enactment installation to marketplace makers to guarantee heavy liquidity from time one. The displacement to USDT colony marks a notable pivot aft Circle declined to frost stolen USDC during the archetypal attack.

Drift described the program arsenic its archetypal measurement toward making users full implicit time.

Read the Original communicative Drift Protocol Announces $150M Tether-Backed Plan for Relaunch and User Recovery by Lockridge Okoth astatine beincrypto.com