Drift Exchange Hacked for $280 Million in Sophisticated Crypto Heist
Hackers have stolen $280 million from Drift, the largest perpetual futures exchange built on the Solana blockchain. The theft represents roughly half the total value of funds held on the platform and stands as one of the most significant crypto exchange hacks in recent memory.
The attack was launched on Wednesday and disclosed by the company through a series of posts on X the following day. Drift said the operation appeared to involve multi-week preparation and was executed in a matter of hours. Hackers took control of the protocol by manipulating individuals who had access to key wallets. The company told users not to deposit funds while the investigation was ongoing and added it was “not an April Fools joke.”
Drift has been forced to freeze customer funds as it works to contain the fallout. The exchange has not responded to media requests for comment and neither has the Solana Foundation.
The tactics used in the attack closely resemble a 2025 hack on crypto exchange Bybit in which North Korean hackers stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency. North Korean hackers stole a total of $2.02 billion in crypto during 2025 alone which was a 50 percent increase from the year before, according to data from Chainalysis. Unlike Bybit which secured emergency loans to ensure users could access their funds Drift is a smaller and less profitable operation and has had no choice but to freeze withdrawals.
The hack comes as perpetual futures trading has exploded in popularity. Perpetuals are derivative contracts with no expiration date that allow traders to speculate on asset prices and amplify bets using leverage. Volumes on rival exchange Hyperliquid grew 420 percent to $2.93 trillion in 2025 according to DefiLlama data. Weekend trading on that platform has also risen sharply since the Iran war began as retail traders look for ways to trade oil-related risk while traditional exchanges like CME and ICE remain closed.
Crypto perpetuals are not yet approved for trading in the US though the newest chair of the US derivatives regulator Michael Selig has announced plans to greenlight them in the coming weeks.
“When you’re dealing with a smaller exchange that’s less well-capitalised you’re taking a fair bit of risk” said Mike Cahill chief executive at Douro Labs. “It’s as simple as that.”
