Six months after a $285 million exploit of the Drift Protocol, the total value locked (TVL) in the Solana DeFi ecosystem has returned to $6.5 billion. This marks a 38% increase over the last two months, supported by a 63% rise in the price of SOL, which grew from approximately $73 to $118.
The April 1, 2026, attack involved a social engineering scheme targeting administrative privileges rather than smart contract vulnerabilities. The breach, attributed to North Korean-linked actors, resulted in the loss of roughly half of the protocol's pre-attack TVL, which exceeded $550 million.
To address the fallout, Tether committed up to $127.5 million to a recovery pool, with additional partners contributing $20 million, totaling nearly $150 million. Affected users received recovery tokens, granting them claims on future protocol revenues instead of immediate compensation.
Following the incident, the protocol rebranded as Velocity DEX, focusing on perpetual contract trading and implementing stricter administrative controls. On September 29, 2026, Drift co-founder Cindy Leow resigned from her position as the platform transitioned to the new structure.
