What is Drift (DRIFT)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Drift Protocol aims to bring the performance and user experience of centralized exchanges on-chain. Its core value is providing a permissionless, capital-efficient trading layer on Solana. It solves the problem of slow, expensive, and fragmented DeFi trading by offering a unified platform for derivatives, spot markets, and lending/borrowing, all with deep liquidity and sub-second execution (Drift Updates).

2. Technology & Architecture

Built on Solana, Drift leverages the blockchain's high throughput and low latency. Its v3 upgrade, launched in December 2025, delivers 10x faster order fills, with 85% of market orders completing in under 400 milliseconds (CoinDesk). It uses a hybrid liquidity model combining a virtual automated market maker (vAMM) with an on-chain order book to minimize slippage and improve price discovery for traders.

3. Tokenomics & Governance

The DRIFT token has a fixed supply of 1 billion. Its primary utilities are governance and staking. Stakers can participate in the Drift DAO, voting on proposals that shape the protocol's future. Staking DRIFT into the Drift Safety Module (DSM) also provides an insurance backstop for the protocol and rewards stakers with a share of protocol fees and trading fee discounts (Drift Updates).

Conclusion

Fundamentally, Drift Protocol is a high-speed, all-in-one decentralized trading infrastructure on Solana, powered by the DRIFT token for governance and security. As it evolves with upgrades like v3 and expands into prediction markets, how will its role as a foundational DeFi layer solidify within the broader Solana ecosystem?