Drift Protocol has struck a deal with Tether and a group of unnamed partners to raise up to nearly $150 million in support funding, announcing simultaneously that it will drop USDC as its settlement asset in favour of USDT when it relaunches — a direct consequence of Circle's decision not to freeze stolen funds during the April 1 exploit.
The collaboration establishes a structured recovery plan backed by up to nearly $150 million in combined support, including up to $127.5 million from Tether. The funding encompasses a $100 million revenue-linked credit facility, an ecosystem grant, and loans to market makers, designed to fund a dedicated user recovery pool.
Today, Drift is announcing a collaboration with @tether and other partners totaling up to nearly $150 million to support our commitment to a relaunch with USDT at the center, and a path to user recovery.
— Drift (@DriftProtocol) April 16, 2026
These funds encompass a $100M revenue-linked credit facility, an ecosystem…
The announcement, posted on X by Drift on Thursday and confirmed by a Tether statement , marks the first concrete step toward restoring the roughly $285 million lost when North Korean-affiliated attackers drained Drift's vaults after a months-long infiltration of its team. As we reported earlier this month , approximately $232 million of those funds were bridged from Solana to Ethereum in USDC via Circle's own Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol while the exploit was active, and Circle did not intervene.
Circle faces class action
That inaction has moved from industry debate to federal court. Circle is facing a proposed class action from a Missouri crypto user who accused the stablecoin issuer of failing to intervene and freeze assets as hackers drained the funds in the April Fools' Day exploit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The lawsuit, filed April 14 by Oakland-based firm Gibbs Mura , alleges Circle had previously amassed over $420 million in alleged compliance failures after repeatedly allowing unfettered use of its stablecoin and bridge services during large breaches. The suit's central allegation is that Circle made no intervention to freeze the funds despite having aggressively frozen 16 unrelated business wallets in a separate civil matter nine days earlier. Plaintiffs argue that precedent demonstrates Circle had both the capability and willingness to act, just not, apparently, in the direction of Drift's users.
The stablecoin switch in Drift's relaunch plan is the most direct response to that dynamic. As part of the relaunch, Drift said it will transition its settlement asset from USDC to USDT, bringing more than 128,000 users and over 35 ecosystem teams, including Gauntlet, Neutral, and M1, onto USDT-based trading, positioning it as a primary settlement asset on one of Solana's largest perpetual trading venues.
How the recovery is structured
Rather than a straight capital injection, the deal links user repayments to Drift's trading activity going forward. The structure ties funding and recovery to ongoing trading on the platform, with exchange revenue contributing directly to user recovery while supporting the platform's ability to operate and scale. Capital support will be introduced progressively and aligned with performance.
A substantial portion of exchange revenue, together with committed support capital, is intended to fund a dedicated user recovery pool during the initial phase. Drift has also been working with law enforcement and blockchain forensics partners to track stolen assets, with any recovered funds to be contributed to the pool.
To distribute recovered assets and give impacted users liquidity options, a new transferable token will be issued to users affected by the April 1 exploit, with additional details on token mechanics to follow.
Security overhaul
The protocol's governance failures, specifically a zero-timelock 2/5 multisig installed five days before the hack that let attackers execute 31 withdrawals in roughly 12 minutes, are being directly addressed. Prior to relaunching, each component will pass through independent audits from OtterSec and Asymmetric Research. Drift will also introduce a new community-governed multisig, with all signers required to operate on dedicated signing devices and independently verify transaction content outside the primary signing interface before any signature is executed.
Tether's play
For Tether, the deal is both a rescue and an expansion. Tether proposes to extend a USDT support facility to designated market makers to reinforce deep, liquid markets from day one of relaunch.
CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the move in infrastructure terms: "Tether's role in the digital assets ecosystem is to provide a platform for individuals and institutions alike that is ready to step forward to help the industry in the moment of darkness." Tether says it has worked with more than 310 law enforcement agencies across 64 countries and has coordinated the recovery of over $800 million in connection with security incidents.
The broader picture is a market actively repricing stablecoin counterparty risk in DeFi infrastructure. The legal question our earlier reporting flagged — whether regulated stablecoin issuers should face clearer obligations, or have safe harbors, to freeze assets during live exploits — remains unresolved in the GENIUS Act and related U.S. legislation. Drift has answered it for itself by switching issuers. Whether the courts will answer it for Circle is now a separate matter.
