Drift Protocol entered the third post-hack day on Friday with the identification of the exploiters still unknown. The Solana-based DeFi exchange shared an update on the ongoing investigation on Friday, claiming that it has initiated an on-chain contact with the wallets linked to the stolen funds of over $280 million.
A total of four Etherem-based wallets have been identified to be holding the stolen funds. In a post on X, Drift shared the wallet addresses along with the time stamps of the messages sent to these wallet holders.
“We are ready to speak. Please reach out via Blockscan chat,” the hacked protocol noted.
As per SolanaFloor, multiple Solana-based DeFi protocols have confirmed the impact of the exploit. These include Reflect Money, Ranger Dinance, Neutral Trade, and Project 0 among others.
As per Drift, the atatckers used a Solana transaction feature called “durable nonces” to pre-sign administrative transfers that let them bypass Drift’s multi-sig security within minutes. At least two out of five multi-sig signers were accessed by the hackers to execute the attack.
Drift continues to keep its services suspended to avoid any existing threats or security lapses.
As of now, the protocol has not revealed if the exploiters have responded to the on-chain messages. The intension behind the initiated dialogue has also not been elaborated on as of now.
Meanwhile, Drift Protocol has neither disclosed how many people are financially impacted by the attack nor has it laid out a reimbursement plan for those affected by the attack.
North Korea’s notorious Lazarus group are being linked to the incident, however, confirmation on the same remains awaited. On-chain investigating firm Diverg has named the organization citing confirmation from TRM Labs as well as Elliptic.
Between January and March this year, hackers have managed to drain $168.6 million from 34 decentralized finance protocols, a report by DeFiLlama said on Friday. The largest single exploit of Q1 2026 was a $40 million private key compromise targeting Step Finance in January.