Crypto lawyer: Drift Protocol's $280M exploit could amount to civil negligence

Odaily Planet Daily reported that attorney Ariel Givner said the $280 million exploit of Solana-based DeFi platform Drift Protocol was likely preventable with standard operational security practices and could rise to civil negligence. Givner argued the Drift team overlooked basic safeguards, including keeping signing keys off air-gapped systems and failing to conduct adequate due diligence on blockchain developers met at industry conferences. In a post on X, Drift said the attackers spent roughly six months preparing the operation, first approaching the team at a major crypto industry conference in October 2025. After gaining trust, the perpetrators compromised developer devices using malicious links and malware implants. Drift added it has medium-to-high confidence the same group was behind Radiant Capital's October 2024 attack. Class action advertisements targeting Drift Protocol are now circulating.