Drift Issues Recovery Tokens After ₱18.2 billion ($295 million) Hack

Hackers tricked Drift administrators into approving bogus transactions on April 1, stealing ₱18.2 billion ($295 million) from the Solana-based derivatives exchange.

Now Drift plans to issue recovery tokens representing claims on a pool gradually filled by protocol revenue and partner support. Tether and other organizations committed ₱9.07 billion ($147 million) to recovery efforts. At Drift's current revenue rate of ₱1.17 billion ($19 million) annually, full recovery could take around 8 years assuming those partner commitments materialize.

The recovery tokens will be transferrable, letting users trade their claims or bet on Drift's comeback. Users can redeem tokens at a discount once the recovery pool hits ₱308.46 million ($5 million). Drift will seed the pool with just under $4 million in stablecoins initially.

Blockchain analysts traced the hack to North Korea. In response, Drift scrapped its high-yield savings products, mobile app, and a new liquidity model. The team said it made hard internal decisions to restructure and operate as lean as possible, focusing entirely on recovery and relaunch. The exchange plans to return before July as a slimmed-down perpetual futures platform with fewer collateral assets and tighter security protocols.

The recovery token model follows industry precedent. Bitfinex issued Recovery Right Tokens in 2016 as limited-recourse obligations after its hack, while WazirX allocated tokens on a pro rata basis with three-month evaluation cycles. Recovery tokens let platforms distribute upside proportionally and create potential secondary market liquidity.

Drift's token traded just under $0.04 both before and after Tuesday's announcement. The team said the structure is in place, ecosystem partners are committed, and the work is underway, with the exchange targeting a July relaunch.