Drift Protocol Exploit Targets Solana DEX, $FARTCOIN Among Stolen Assets
An exploit totaling over $270 million (with some reports citing $220 million) targeted Drift Protocol, a perpetuals decentralized exchange on Solana. A hacker gained unauthorized access to private keys, draining a wide array of assets from the platform, including $5.3 million in $USDS, $60.4 million in $USDC, $5.65 million in $USDT, $430K in $JUP, $540K in $USDY, $590K in $ZBTC, $680K in $EURC, $1 million in $BSOL, $2.5 million in $INF, $2 million in $MSOL, $3.3 million in $SYRUPUSDC, $4.4 million in $WBTC, $3.6 million in $JITOSOL, $4.7 million in $WETH, $4.5 million in $DSOL, $11.3 million in $CBBTC, and $155.6 million in $JPL.
$FARTCOIN was identified as a stolen asset, initially estimated at $4.1 million (with some reports ranging from $4 million to $4.4 million).
Hacker's Liquidation Attempts, Market Absorption, and Community Response
After acquiring the $FARTCOIN, the exploiter began liquidating the stolen funds, selling between $1.1 million and $1.4 million worth onto the market. At one point, the attacker still held approximately $2.6 million worth. Despite this influx, the $FARTCOIN market demonstrated significant liquidity, absorbing the estimated $4.1 million sell pressure. One report highlighted that 2.6% of $FARTCOIN’s total supply was sold on-chain, yet the price showed an increase on that specific day.
At one point, $FARTCOIN accounted for $27 million of the total $58 million volume for tokens listed on Birdeye, further demonstrating the market's capacity to absorb the hacker's sales.
Initial sentiment scores for $FARTCOIN plummeted to -89 and -75 following the hack. During the exploiter's sell-off, it appeared among the top losers on various exchanges, experiencing declines of -1.03% to -3.63% on Coinbase Spot and -2.39% to -9.44% on Binance Futures over short periods. However, as the market absorbed the selling pressure, sentiment scores rebounded to as high as 79 and 65, with $FARTCOIN appearing among the top gainers on Coinbase Spot (+1.77% to +2.84% in 15-minute and 60-minute windows).
Whale activity showed large investors adding $FARTCOIN to their holdings, with one whale adding $16.55K (at a $159.73 million market cap) and another $45.35K (at a $159.03 million market cap).
Subsequent reports confirmed the attacker no longer held any of the initially exploited $FARTCOIN, marking a complete reversal of their position on this asset.