Hackers stole $280 million from the unregulated crypto exchange Drift, the largest perpetual futures exchange on the Solana blockchain.
The incident occurred on April 1, and the company even had to specifically emphasize in its announcement of the funds' freeze that it was not an April Fool's joke.
"This was an extremely complex operation that likely involved weeks of preparation and phased execution," the publication stated. According to the company, the hackers used sophisticated methods to gain control of the protocol by manipulating people with access to key wallets. As the Financial Times notes, these methods are reminiscent of the 2025 attack on the Bybit exchange, in which North Korean hackers stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency. However, unlike Bybit, which raised emergency funding to preserve user access to funds and facilitate withdrawals, Drift—as a smaller and less capitalized platform—was forced to freeze client funds.
The stolen funds represent approximately half of all dollar deposits on the platform, according to the FT.
Dangerous Simplicity
Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiration date that are used by crypto traders to speculate on asset prices. Their trading volume has grown significantly over the past year, the FT writes. The newspaper emphasizes that perpetual contracts have become one of the most actively traded instruments in decentralized finance, a segment of the crypto market with relatively weak regulation. Traders are attracted by the ease of trading and the ability to use leverage to increase profits.
The growth of perpetual contracts trading is accompanied by the emergence of a new generation of exchanges, such as Drift and Hyperliquid. Derivatives trading volume on the latter has grown by 420%, reaching $2.93 trillion in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to DefiLlama data cited by the FT.
Hyperliquid and similar platforms offer 24/7 trading of perpetual contracts on assets such as oil and metals. Following the outbreak of the war with Iran, the newspaper notes, weekend trading volume has increased as retail investors seek ways to trade oil-related risks while traditional exchanges like CME and ICE are closed. "People want to trade anyway," emphasized Mike Cahill, CEO of Douro Labs.
Crypto perpetual contracts are not yet legal for trading in the US. The new head of the US derivatives regulator, Michael Selig, announced plans to approve them in the coming weeks, the publication recalls.