Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, suspended all deposits and withdrawals Wednesday after detecting unusual trading activity on the platform. The team is investigating what cybersecurity researcher Vladimir S says involved a compromised admin signer and could result in up to $200 million in losses.
The stolen assets include wrapped Bitcoin, Jito, Fartcoin memecoin, various altcoins, and stablecoins in dollars, euros, and yen. Attackers began converting the assets to USDC stablecoin and bridging funds to Ethereum while purchasing Ether. The stolen funds were moved to multiple wallets.
The DRIFT token price fell 18% following news of the exploit, dropping from a brief high of $0.68. According to security firm Immunefi, about 83% of hacked platform tokens never recover to pre-hack prices, with long-term damage including token price suppression and user trust erosion.
