Drift Protocol, a leading Solana decentralized exchange, was exploited for $285 million in a sophisticated, six-month operation culminating in a rapid 12-minute draining of funds. Attackers posed as a quantitative trading firm, building relationships with protocol insiders before using social engineering and a manufactured token to manipulate price oracles and drain vaults.
North Korea is implicated, marking it as the 18th crypto attack attributed to DPRK this year, with over $300 million stolen. The exploit led to a significant drop in the DRIFT token and a collapse in total value locked (TVL).
In a major development for traditional finance, Charles Schwab announced it will launch spot Bitcoin and Ether trading this quarter for its clients. Managing $12.2 trillion in assets, Schwab will allow millions of Americans to buy crypto directly within their existing brokerage accounts, held via Charles Schwab Premier Bank.
Meanwhile, Google's latest research suggests quantum computers could crack elliptic curve cryptography-the backbone of Bitcoin and Ethereum-using significantly fewer qubits than previously estimated. This raises concerns about future security, with researchers estimating a non-trivial chance of Bitcoin private keys being compromised by 2032.
Coinbase has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter. This federal upgrade standardizes regulatory oversight for asset custody across all 50 states, streamlining operations for institutional clients.
Circle, the issuer of USDC, is entering the wrapped Bitcoin market with cirBTC, aiming to provide a more trusted alternative to existing solutions like WBTC. The token will be backed 1:1 by native on-chain Bitcoin reserves.