Drift Proposes Recovery Tokens After $295M Solana Hack; Users May Wait Years for Compensation

Developers behind the Solana-based derivatives exchange Drift unveiled a recovery plan on Tuesday, proposing to funnel protocol revenue to users affected by a devastating hack in April. The plan also includes relaunching the platform before July as a "leaner, perps-native exchange with an emphasis on security."

"The Drift team is taking considered measures to ensure that users are made whole, and that Drift restores itself as the leading perpetuals DEX on Solana," the developers stated in an update on the exchange’s website. "The team has made internal hard decisions to restructure and operate as lean as possible, focusing entirely on recovery and relaunch."

Recovery Plan Requires Tokenholder Approval

Key elements of the recovery plan must be approved by Drift tokenholders. If approved, victims of the hack could face a multi-year wait to recover their losses.

On April 1, hackers tricked Drift administrators into approving fraudulent transactions, resulting in the theft of crypto assets worth $295 million. Trading and other activities were suspended following the breach. Blockchain analysts later attributed the hack to North Korea-linked actors.

How Recovery Tokens Would Work

Under the proposal, users would receive a "recovery token" representing a claim on a "recovery pool." This pool would be funded by Drift’s protocol revenue, as well as contributions from organizations like Tether and others that assisted after the hack. The claim amount would be proportional to each user’s losses, according to the Drift website update.

Drift generated $19 million in revenue in 2025. At this rate, it would take nearly eight years to accumulate $295 million in the recovery pool—assuming Tether and partners honor their commitment to contribute a combined $147 million to the effort.

Users seeking immediate compensation could redeem recovery tokens at a discount once the pool reaches $5 million in assets. Drift proposed seeding the pool with just under $4 million in stablecoins.

The recovery tokens would be transferable, allowing users to speculate on Drift’s future success amid a dramatically overhauled business model.

Drift’s Post-Hack Transformation

The proposed relaunch would mark a significant shift for Drift. The new platform would eliminate "earn" products—high-risk, high-yield savings accounts—and focus exclusively on a perpetual futures exchange with streamlined code to reduce exploitable vulnerabilities.

Additional changes include:

• Reducing the number of accepted collateral assets
• Limiting trading to only the most popular and liquid assets
• Delaying development of a mobile application
• Pausing a new liquidity model introduced just three months prior

The exchange would rebrand as a "security-first" platform, with administrators required to follow a formal security protocol. This includes using dedicated devices and completing quarterly security training sessions.

Market Reaction

The proposal had minimal impact on the Drift token, which was trading at just under $0.04 before and after Tuesday’s announcement.

"This will take time but the structure is in place, ecosystem partners are committed and the work is underway."

The update was provided by the Drift team, with Aleks Gilbert reporting for DL News from New York.