Key Highlights
- Drift Protocol lost over $270 million in a suspected exploit, with funds moved through a hacker wallet.
- The stolen assets included more than 11 types of tokens, which were moved across blockchains to obscure their trail.
- The DRIFT token fell over 20% after the exploit, and users were warned not to deposit funds while the investigation continues.
Drift Protocol, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Solana blockchain, has reportedly been exploited, with over $270 million in assets moved from its vaults.
The exploit, which occurred on Wednesday, appears to have taken advantage of vulnerabilities in the protocol’s vaults. According to blockchain investigator Lookonchain, which flagged the activity, the hacker transferred the stolen funds through a wallet with the tag “HkGz4k,” using several coordinated transactions.
The attacker initially bought 41.72 million Jupiter Liquidity Pool (JLP) tokens worth $155.62 million, then converted large amounts of USDC and other tokens before bridging the funds to Ethereum to purchase 19,913 ETH, worth approximately $42.6 million.
Altogether, on-chain data shows that the hacker carried out around 11 transactions, including 51.616 million USDC worth $51.62 million, 125,000 WSOL worth $10.45 million, and 164,349 cbBTC worth $11.29 million. Within minutes, the vault’s total assets dropped from $309 million to $41 million.
Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Solana developer platform Helius, also warned traders of the potential exploit and advised them to mind their positions.
Drift confirms the attack
The firm has confirmed the exploit and suspended all transactions. According to the team, it has teamed up with “multiple security firms, bridges, and exchanges to contain the incident.”
“This is not an April Fools joke. We’ll provide additional updates from this account as more information is available to share,” the team added.
DRIFT token crashes after the attack
As a result, the platform’s native token has been affected. According to data from CoinMarketCap, shortly after the news, DRIFT dropped sharply from a high of $0.071. The token is down over 20% at the time of writing, and price action suggests the downtrend may continue.
Trading activity has increased by 198% to about $22.15 million, but current price trends suggest that much of this activity is driven by selling pressure. At the same time, the market cap has dropped by 19% and now stands at $31.27 million.
Exploit attacks keep piling up in 2026
This incident adds to a growing list of recent exploits. Just hours earlier, blockchain security firm PeckShield flagged a $950,000 exploit targeting the LML staking protocol on Binance Smart Chain. This led to the protocol’s native token crashing by over 99.66% in hours. The attack literally obliterated the value as it dropped down to $0.1758.
Just last month, DBXen staking lost $150,000 due to a meta-transaction bug. In addition, Venus Protocol also lost $3.7 million in an oracle manipulation attack, which left it with a very bad debt. Many of these attacks follow the same pattern, which involves flash loans, manipulating token prices, or moving funds across tokens and blockchains to hide stolen money.
This increase in attacks on crypto platforms highlights a high risk where security weaknesses can quickly lead to large financial losses for both the platform and its users.
Also Read: Crypto Hacks Stole $52M in March Amid “Shadow Contagion” Threat: PeckShield
![Logos of Hyperliquid Policy Center and Trade[XYZ] in front of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) seal](https://www.cryptotimes.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hyperliquid-and-TradeXYZ-Push-CFTC-to-Onshore-500B-Oil-Perpetuals-Market-615x410.jpg)
