Key Takeaways

• Drift Protocol suffered a $285 million hack on April 1, 2026, the largest crypto exploit of the year so far.

• The attacker used a fake token and a compromised admin key to manipulate oracles and drain vaults.

• Funds were bridged via Circle’s CCTP, with ZachXBT criticizing the lack of a timely freeze.

Solana-based Drift Protocol, a major decentralized perpetuals exchange, suffered a $285 million exploit on April 1, 2026.

What began as unusual on-chain activity quickly escalated into the year’s largest hack, wiping out more than half of the protocol’s total value locked (TVL).

Drift confirmed an “active attack” shortly after alerts from on-chain analytics firms.

Following the attack, Drift…