Drift protocol exploit wey linked to North Korea drain $285M for 12 minutes

Hackers wey get link to North Korea run exploit Drift Protocol for April 1, dem carry about $285M comot — one of di biggest DeFi hacks for 2026. Drift talk say di attack be six-month intelligence operation wey dem use target governance compromise. Di Drift exploit use fake token (CarbonVote/CVT) to manipulate Drift price oracles, make di bad collateral look legitimate. Dem come use Solana durable nonces with pre-signed transactions to automate withdrawals — 31 quick transfers inside roughly 12 minutes. Drift still talk say social-engineering phase start around October 2025, wen di attackers pretend to be quantitative trading firm and build relationship wit contributors before dem target multisig/admin access. Elliptic and TRM Labs attribute di activity to DPRK. Market read-through for traders: DRIFT drop over 40%, and Drift TVL reportedly fall from ~ $550M to under $250M. Some Solana-dependent protocols pause operation. Di incident bring back scrutiny on cross-chain controls tied to USDC/Circle’s CCTP, with comments say faster freezes fit reduce di damage. If you trade DRIFT, expect higher volatility, tighter risk limits on Solana perp/DeFi liquidity, and possible knock-on hedging flows tied to USDC and derivatives.