Solana-based decentralised exchange Drift Protocol has suffered an exploit resulting in more than $200 million in stolen funds, with estimates reaching as high as $285 million.
The platform paused deposits and withdrawals as suspicious transfers drained assets from its vaults to attacker-controlled wallets, according to on-chain data.
“Drift Protocol is experiencing an active attack,”
The company said, adding that deposits and withdrawals had been suspended while it coordinated with security firms and exchanges to contain the incident.
The exploit began with a transfer of roughly 41 million JLP tokens worth about $155 million to a wallet address, followed by additional token outflows distributed across multiple wallets.
Security researchers believe the breach may have stemmed from a compromised private key that enabled unauthorised admin access, with PeckShield founder Jiang Xuxian stating;
“The admin keys behind Drift were definitely leaked or compromised.”
Following the announcement the Drift Protocol token price was down at $0.049.
Drift Protocol previously held around $550 million in total value locked and plays a key role in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem through its perpetual futures trading platform.
The incident adds to ongoing concerns around operational security in decentralised finance, particularly where human error rather than smart contract flaws may expose critical vulnerabilities.
At the time of reporting, Solana price was $81.31.