If Youβre a Web3 User, Donβt Skip - Read How Drift Lost $280M.
@DriftProtocol just released a full incident breakdown of what actually happened.
Everyone saw the exploit. $280M gone in a moment.
But it didnβt start there.
It started months earlier at a conference. A group shows up as a quant trading firm. Smart, technical, asking the right questions. They stay in touch, meet again at other events, build trust slowly. Deposit $1M , talk integrations, feel like real partners.
They werenβt rushing anything. Just showing up, again and again. Conversations felt normal. Even helpful. The kind of people youβd actually want to work with.
Then small things start slipping in.
βCheck this repo, quick look.β
βTry this build, still early.β
Nothing suspicious. No urgency. No pressure. Just normal workflow. And thatβs exactly why it worked.
Because nothing felt like an attack.
Until April 1. Everything hits at once. Funds gone. Chats wiped. Tools gone. No trace.
This wasnβt a normal hack. No phishing link, no fake wallet. Just months of building trust, then using it once.
Lesson: Trust is the real attack surface. The moment money is involved, verify everything.