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<h2 id="crypto-news">Crypto News</h2>Solana-based trading platform Drift confirmed an active attack on its protocol Wednesday and suspended both deposits and withdrawals. The platform said it was coordinating with multiple security firms, bridges, and exchanges to contain the breach. The exploit began more than two hours before Drift posted its public alert. Losses are estimated at a minimum of $200 million, with some on-chain data placing the figure closer to $270 million.Drift posted a <a href="https://x.com/DriftProtocol/status/2039404931778535427" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">warning </a>on X urging users to avoid depositing funds while the investigation was underway. The team <a href="https://x.com/DriftProtocol/status/2039404931778535427" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">noted </a>in the post that the incident was not an April Fools' Day stunt. A follow-up post confirmed that withdrawals had also been halted. Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, whose firm provides API and node infrastructure on Solana, wrote on X that Drift appeared to be getting exploited before the platform had confirmed the breach.Blockchain security researcher Vladimir S said the most likely cause was a compromised admin signer key. He said whoever controlled that key either had it stolen or deliberately executed the changes. The attacker used that access to drain multiple Drift vaults, including JLP Delta Neutral, Solana Super Staking, and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin</a> Super Staking. A single transfer of 41.7 million JLP tokens was worth approximately $155 million on its own. Other drained assets included<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Solana</a>, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">USDC</a>, cbBTC, and wBTC, according to SolScan data.On-chain data from Arkham <a href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/HkGz4KmoZ7Zmk7HN6ndJ31UJ1qZ2qgwQxgVqQwovpZES" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">showed </a>more than $250 million moving from Drift to an interim wallet before being split across multiple addresses. Tracking firm Lookonchain found that the attacker began converting stolen funds to<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> USDC </a>through Jupiter, a Solana-based DEX aggregator. The attacker then bridged those stablecoins to the Ethereum network and used them to purchase<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Ethereum</a>. By 5:45 p.m. UTC Wednesday, the attacker held approximately 19,913 Ethereum, worth around $42 million. The main exploiter wallet was created eight days before the attack and had remained inactive until roughly 18 hours before the breach.The DRIFT token dropped more than 20% in the hours after the exploit was first reported, trading at around $0.05, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token had briefly reached $0.68 earlier in the day before news of the attack broke. <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Solana </a>also declined, hitting a local low of $83.82 before partially recovering.<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Solana </a>remained up over 1% on the day at the time of publication.If losses are confirmed at or above $200 million, the attack would rank as the largest exploit on Solana outside of the $326 million Wormhole bridge hack, according to Rekt's leaderboard. Blockchain security firm Immunefi has reported that roughly 83% of native tokens from hacked platforms never recover to their pre-hack price levels. Immunefi CEO Mitchell Amador said in March that confirmed exploits cause damage well beyond the immediate financial loss, including token price suppression, reduced treasury capacity, and erosion of user trust. Drift said it would continue posting updates from its official X account as the investigation progresses.

Drift Loses Estimated $200M in Solana Exploit, DRIFT Token Falls 20%

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