Stablecoin issuer Tether said Thursday it will lead a $150 million recovery program to help relaunch and restore user funds on the Drift Protocol decentralized exchange after a $280 million exploit in April. Tether’s contribution to the plan totals $127.5 million, with the remainder coming from undisclosed partners, the company said.
Tether described the program as tying funding and recovery to ongoing trading activity on Drift, allowing user balances to be restored as the exchange returns to normal operations rather than relying solely on upfront capital. Drift will also contribute directly to the recovery as trading resumes.
As part of its relaunch, Drift plans to switch its settlement asset from Circle’s USDC to Tether’s USDT.
The attack saw more than $232 million in USDC moved from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), according to onchain sleuths. The exploiter moved funds in over 100 transactions and reportedly laundered them over a roughly six-hour window. Security firms have linked the attacker to North Korea, according to reports.
Circle faced criticism from industry figures and blockchain security researchers for not freezing the USDC wallets tied to the exploiter during the period in which the transfers occurred. Following the incident, Circle’s stock fell about 10% on April 9 amid criticism and downgraded forecasts, though it later recovered and was trading roughly 20% higher as of yesterday’s close, per market data cited in coverage.
The Drift incident and Tether’s recovery initiative reflect a growing trend of crypto firms collaborating to restore user funds and stabilize platforms after major hacks and cybersecurity incidents.