Wallets linked to the $295 million April hack still held $138 million in Ether after sending another $46 million to the mixer Wednesday. A Drift exploiter-linked wallet transferred 18,800 Ether, worth about $46 million, to Tornado Cash on Wednesday. The exploiter transferred $61 million in Ether to the crypto mixer on Tuesday, taking its two-day total to 44,510 ETH, or $109 million, as blockchain data tracker Onchain Lens said on X. The transfers to Tornado Cash make the funds harder to trace and represent nearly 37% of the $295 million stolen from decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift in April. The attack ranks as this year’s third-largest crypto hack, according to DefiLlama. Read more
The April 1 hack caused about $295 million in losses and was later attributed to a North Korean threat group in a Mandiant investigation. A wallet linked to the Drift Protocol hack sent about $61 million in Ether (ETH) to Tornado Cash, a service that obscures transaction trails. The wallet deposited 25,700 ETH to the cryptocurrency mixer over two hours on Tuesday after two months of inactivity, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said in an X post. The exploiter’s addresses held about 81,454 Ether, worth roughly $194 million, according to Arkham. Crypto mixers pool funds from multiple addresses and obscure fund trails, making tracing harder. Read more
Carrot's total value locked has collapsed 93% in a month, from $28 million to $1.99 million, leaving the protocol financially unable to continue. Solana-based decentralized finance yield protocol Carrot said Thursday that it is shutting down permanently, becoming one of the first DeFi protocols to fall due to contagion from the Drift Protocol exploit in early April. In an X post on Thursday, Carrot said the Drift exploit was “catastrophic” for the protocol and had left it financially unable to continue operating. The platform set a May 14 deadline for users to withdraw remaining funds. It said it will continue to help recovery efforts related to Drift and distribute assets once they become available. “We are setting May 14th as the deadline to withdraw any remaining funds from Boost, Turbo, and CRT before we will then begin to deleverage the system. Your deposited funds are still yours, but all leverage will be reduced to zero, freeing up all liquidity for CRT redemption,” the protocol’s team said. Read more
The $280 million Drift Protocol attack was likely carried out by threat actors aligned with North Korea state-affiliated hackers. The hack of the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Drift Protocol could have been prevented if standard operational security procedures were followed by the Drift team, and may constitute “civil negligence,” according to attorney Ariel Givner. “In plain terms, civil negligence means they failed their basic duty to protect the money they were managing,” Givner said in response to the post-mortem update provided by the Drift team and how it handled Wednesday’s $280 million exploit. The Drift team failed to follow “basic” security procedures, including keeping signing keys on separate, “air-gapped” systems that are never used for developer work, and conducting due diligence on blockchain developers met through industry conferences. Read more
Drift Protocol initiated onchain contact with wallets tied to the $280 million exploit as an unknown sender also attempts to pressure the attacker. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), said Friday it had opened onchain contact with wallets tied to funds stolen in the exploit that outside firms have estimated at roughly $280 million to $286 million. Drift said on X that it had initiated onchain contact with wallets holding the stolen Ether (ETH), seeking to open a line of communication. The team sent onchain messages from its Ethereum address (0x0934faC) to four wallets linked to the exploiter at the time of publication, urging the attacker to reach out via Blockscan chat. “We are ready to speak,” Drift said. Read more
Drift said a durable nonce attack helped drive its Solana exploit, as critics questioned why stolen USDC moved for hours without a freeze. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), confirmed Thursday it was targeted in a roughly $280 million exploit, describing it as a “highly sophisticated operation.” The platform took to X on to share its findings from a preliminary investigation, saying that the attackers exploited Solana’s durable nonces, a mechanism enabling pre-signed transactions, to seize control and drain funds. The protocol had earlier said it was experiencing an active attack and suspended deposits and withdrawals while coordinating with security firms, bridges and exchanges. The attack began on Wednesday, with the theft involving multiple assets, including Circle’s USDC (USDC) and various altcoins. Onchain data later showed that the exploiter swapped the majority of assets into USDC, with the funds later bridged to Ethereum. Read more