Drift Protocol opened claims and redemptions for its DFX recovery token on Oct. 1, letting victims of its April exploit cash out USDT from the protocol's Recovery Pool. Redeeming burns the submitted tokens and ends their share of future deposits, while tokens kept in reserve keep participating.
Drift opened DFX claims and redemptions on Oct. 1, giving victims of its April exploit a way to receive USDT from the protocol's Recovery Pool. The exit carries a permanent tradeoff: redeemed tokens are burned and lose any claim on deposits made after the redemption.
A payout near one cent on the dollar
In its launch announcement, Drift described a payout of about 0.0104 USDT per DFX from a pool holding roughly 3.1 million USDT. Because victims receive one DFX for each USDT of verified loss, that launch rate represented about 1.04% of the corresponding loss. Those are Oct. 1 figures; a redemption pays the rate quoted at the time the transaction is made.
DFX is a transferable token on Solana, separate from the DRIFT governance token. Drift set its fixed allocation at 299,500,810.998 DFX, corresponding to nearly 299.5 million USDT of verified losses, and outstanding supply falls as tokens are burned.
What cashing out gives up
The USDT payment and the DFX burn happen in one transaction — either both succeed or neither does — and Drift says completed redemptions are final. Future deposits are divided only among the DFX that remain, so cashing out locks in the quoted amount for the burned tokens but gives up any share of later revenue or recovered funds. Selling DFX on a secondary market such as Raydium is a different transaction: it transfers the tokens to another holder rather than redeeming them against the pool.
Where the recovery money comes from
Drift's support plan, announced in April 2026, was restated in the Oct. 1 update: up to 127.5 million USDT from Tether for relaunch and user recovery, plus up to 20 million USDT from strategic partners. Those commitment ceilings do not measure cash already available for redemption, and Tether's April announcement said the capital would be introduced progressively and tied to platform performance.
Drift says a share of net protocol revenue from its Velocity trading platform enters the pool daily at 00:00 UTC, alongside any recovered stolen funds. Further recovery funding depends on those deposits arriving; the commitments are not a promise that every victim recovers their full loss. The DFX claim window closes Jan. 1, 2028, at 00:00 UTC, when unclaimed DFX will be permanently burned — a deadline to claim tokens, not a redemption deadline.
Source: Drift
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
