DEX

Drift Protocol released a detailed Saturday update on its April 1 incident that drained about $280 million from its Solana perpetuals exchange, describing a roughly six-month social engineering campaign that began around fall 2025. The attackers allegedly posed as a quant firm, met contributors at multiple conferences, and deposited over $1 million into an Ecosystem Vault before obtaining pre-signed approvals and taking control within minutes. Drift and SEAL 911 said they have “medium-high” confidence the operation matches the North Korea-aligned actors behind the $50 million Radiant Capital hack in October 2024, while Mandiant has not yet issued formal attribution.

Drift Protocol said the exploit discovered on Wednesday caused losses of about $280 million, based on external estimates, and described it as a coordinated operation that unfolded over roughly six months. The team said it has “medium-high confidence” the same actors were behind Radiant Capital’s $58 million October 2024 hack, and it is working with law enforcement to reconstruct what happened during the April 1 attack.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko described the Drift Protocol incident as "terrifying" after details pointed to a long-running, in-person social engineering operation. Drift Protocol was drained of $270 million and then halted deposits and withdrawals while warning users it was not an April Fools' joke. The report says the attackers built trust from late 2025 through March 2026 before delivering malicious links and software to contributors.

Telegram's Wallet said on April 2 that it will use Lighter to support native leveraged perpetual trading, letting users trade crypto as well as stocks, metals, and oil with up to 50x leverage. The wallet reports more than 150 million registered users, about 25 million of whom are active, while Telegram has over 1 billion users. Lighter's LIT token rallied about 30% and retested $1 after the integration update.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT alleges Circle did not freeze or blacklist roughly $420 million in illicit USDC flows since 2022 across 15 hack-and-fraud cases. He says Circle sometimes had hours or days to act, including cited incidents tied to GMX, Cetus and Drift Protocol, but took limited action or acted after funds were swapped into ETH.

Drift Protocol said a Solana-based perp DEX was exploited on April 1, 2026, with about $286 million removed in roughly 12 minutes after attackers prepared fake collateral and used pre-signed admin transactions. The incident coincided with TVL falling from about $550 million to under $250 million, while DRIFT slid as much as 37%–42% to around $0.04–$0.05. As of April 3, the protocol had sent an onchain outreach message and had not announced a full reimbursement plan.

Drift Protocol said Friday it initiated onchain outreach to wallets holding Ether linked to an exploit that outside firms estimate at roughly $280 million to $286 million. The team said it sent messages from Ethereum address 0x0934faC to four wallets associated with the exploiter, asking them to contact Drift via Blockscan chat. The outreach followed Thursday onchain messages from an unknown ENS user demanding 1,000 ETH to withhold alleged identity information.

SoFi Technologies introduced its Big Business Banking platform, aiming to let institutions move and settle funds 24/7 using both fiat and digital assets, with Solana expected to be one of the supporting networks. Over the last 30 days, Solana DEX volume slid to $55.5 billion—its lowest level since September 2024—while network fees fell 42% and SOL dipped below $80 amid soft momentum signals.

Wallet in Telegram has launched in-app perpetual futures trading for its 150M+ users via an integration with Ethereum-based DEX Lighter. Users can take leveraged long or short positions on 50+ assets and place trades inside Telegram with up to 50x leverage. Availability is not global, with access restricted in jurisdictions including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Wallet in Telegram, a third-party wallet embedded in Telegram, is introducing perpetual futures trading through the Lighter DEX, letting users take leveraged long or short positions inside the app. The rollout, set to launch Thursday, supports up to 50× leverage across more than 50 assets spanning crypto (including Bitcoin and Toncoin) plus tokenized stocks and commodities.