Drift Protocol has released preliminary findings detailing the mechanics of the April 1, 2026, exploit that resulted in the theft of approximately $285 million from the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) exchange. The platform disclosed that the breach was the culmination of a six-month social engineering operation executed by highly resourced threat actors rather than a standard smart contract flaw. Drift has frozen all remaining protocol functions, removed compromised wallets from its multisig, and flagged the attackers’ addresses across cryptocurrency exchanges and bridge operators. The cybersecurity firm Mandiant has been engaged to conduct a full forensic investigation. The Six-Month Infiltration To …