Drift Protocol Suffers Massive Crypto Heist, Hundreds of Millions Potentially Stolen
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform **Drift Protocol** has confirmed it suffered a significant cyberattack, leading to the suspension of deposits and withdrawals. Security experts estimate that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency may have been stolen in the process, marking potentially the largest crypto theft of the year.
Security experts believe hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were stolen from decentralized finance platform **Drift** on Wednesday after the site confirmed it was experiencing a cyberattack.
**Drift Protocol** issued multiple notices on Wednesday afternoon stating it is βexperiencing an active attackβ and that deposits as well as withdrawals are being suspended.
βWe are coordinating with multiple security firms, bridges, and exchanges to contain the incident. This is not an April Fools joke,β the company said.
Officials at **Drift Protocol** initially said they were observing unusual activity that required an investigation, urging customers not to deposit any funds and to proceed with caution.
# Scale of the Attack
Multiple blockchain security firms said the losses appear to be steep. Experts at **PeckShield** told Recorded Future News that they exceeded $285 million while other firms said a significant amount of cryptocurrency was seen being siphoned from the platform. **Drift** did not respond to requests for comment about how much was taken.
Experts said the hacker behind the incident is converting the funds repeatedly into other coins. Crypto sleuths are still investigating how the threat actor was able to pull off the heist.
# About Drift Protocol
Founded in 2021, the **Drift Protocol** is built on the **Solana** blockchain and offers borrowing, lending, perpetual trading and spot trading. Co-founder Cindy Leow told Fortune in 2024 that they wanted to make **Drift** the βRobinhood of crypto.β
On its website, the company links to multiple code audits it underwent in 2023 and 2024.
# Rising Crypto Theft
This would be the largest crypto theft of the year following incidents involving $26 million and $40 million worth of cryptocurrency earlier this year. Blockchain security firm **Chainalysis** tracked $3.4 billion in losses last year from crypto thefts, including $1.5 billion stolen from Dubai-based platform **Bybit**.